Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 18:26:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Corrinne S <quasito_cat@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Red Orb of Pern - Part Five

The Red Orb of Pern

M.C. Gordon

Disclaimer is attached to the beginning of this
series.  This is fan fiction written for a friend who
enjoys Anne McCaffrey's Pern as much as I do.
Comments welcome to quasito_cat@hotmail.com or
quasito_cat@yahoo.com

Chapter 9

   "What is that!?" Andren asked looking across the
room at something that stood alone and apart from
everything else.

   Julani crossed the room and reverently approached
the object.  "It's a harp," he whispered in awe.  "A
full-sized harp, not the kind that we use today." His
voice was a whisper of awe and admiration.  It must
have been put here by the Ancients," he added.

   Andren moved to touch the ancient harp and Lydel
stopped him.  "No," he said.  "Look, it's already
falling apart.  If you touch it, it might crumble to
nothing."

   Andren backed up at those words and looked around
the rest of the room.  "There's other things here," he
said.

   And indeed there were.  Julani picked up a pipe
made of some kind of metal.  "It's beautiful," he
said, for he had only seen ones made of water reeds or
carved wood.  An ancient box, also made of crumbling
wood, stood against one wall.  It was inlaid with
ancient and yellow pieces of a material never seen by
any of the boys

   "This was a Harper's Hall," Mitchell said picking
up a strange object.  "This looks like..." He didn't
finish his thought for just then a fair of fire
lizards burst into the room.

   "I sent them to see if you are alright," Sonath
whispered into Mitchell's mind.  "You've been gone a
long time."

   "Thank you, Sonath," Mitchell replied.  "We're
fine.  We'll be leaving soon.  Sonath sent them," he
told the others.  "What do you think of this, Julani?"
he asked his friend.  "It looks like Harper music, but
this isn't a leather scroll."

   "I don't know what this material is," Julani
responded, taking the pieces of oddly encased white
material from his friend, "but this is written music."
 He glanced at the notes that were written and began
to hum them as best he could.

   Suddenly, the boys were barraged with sounds from
the fire lizards as they picked up the melody and
echoed Julani's humming.  The diminutive golden queen
lifted her voice in a high trill, plunging up and down
in an unbelievable range of note and expression.
Their minds were filled with pictures of men holding
some sort of musical instrument in their arms, perched
beneath their chins, and they could hear the music as
it was meant to be heard.  Notes of pure majesty
echoed through their minds for several moments before
the fire lizards finally stopped, leaving them with a
sense of longing.

   Julani shook his head to clear his wits.  "The
notation here says Scharazade, symphonic suite, Opus
35 for violin, by Nikolai Andreyevich
Rimsky-Korsakov."

   "What the shards is a violin?" Mitchell asked.
"And what's an opus?"

   "I don't know," Julani replied, "but Master Tokan
should see this."


Chapter 10

   "Nothing leaves here," Lydel insisted.  "These
things were left here for a reason.  And until someone
knows why, then I think they should stay right where
they are."

   Julani glared at his younger friend for a span of
seconds before saying, "I'll only leave this music
here if you agree that Master Tokan can come up here
and see it.  I don't think any of us should be making
these kinds of decisions.  What to you think,
Mitchell?"

   Mitchell barely heard the question for his eyes had
spotted an object lying on the floor away from the
music and instruments in contention.  He crossed to
where it lay and saw that, whatever it was, it was
encased in an old cloth.  He leaned down to touch it
and the cloth turned to dust.

   "Look at this!" he shouted toward the others.  When
his friends joined him he was holding a large stone,
deep red and elongated with notches on the end.

   "What is that?" Andren asked.

   "I don't know," he said, "but I think we should get
the Weyrleaders up here."  He closed his eyes and
concentrated very hard, reaching for Sonath's mind.
This would be the first time that he had ever
consciously tried to initiate contact with the gentle
brown dragon.

   "I am here,".

   "Sonath, can you bespeak Gemara and ask that the
Weyrleaders and Masterharper join us?"

   There was no response, but within minutes there was
a great "Hello!" echoing down the twisted corridors.

   "Stay here," Mitchell said, laying the amazing
jewel back where he had found it.  "I'll go back to
the entrance."

   Rushing, staying to the right through the twisted
and convoluted turns of the passage, he finally
reached the entrance to find Adelmisa, L'Noth, and
Master Tokan waiting.

   "And just what are you band of ruffians up to that
needed Sonath to call us to your rescue?" L'Noth
asked, his right hand ruffling Mitchell's light brown
hair.

   "We don't need rescuing, Weyrleader," Mitchell
said.  "We've found something that we thought you
should see."

   L'Noth considered the child.  Mitchell was one of
his favorites among the Weyr's many children.
Headstrong, prone to adventure and trouble, deeply
desiring to Impress, the lad often reminded L'Noth of
himself as a boy.


Chapter 11

   "Do you know where you're going, boy?"  the
Masterharper asked as Mitchell led them to his friends
and their discovery.  "This passage branches off in
several places."

   "Yes, Master Tokan," Mitchell replied.  "We were
very careful to always stay to the left."

   "Very good thinking," the Weyrwoman said.  "Your
idea?"

   "Yes, Ma'am," he responded for all in the weyr had
the greatest respect for the Weyrleaders and his
foster parents deemed common courtesy a virtue.

   "It looks like we're almost there," L'Noth said for
he could see the soft light cast by the glow basket at
the end of the corridor.  "Let's go see what discovery
our young lads have made."

   "Oh my," Tokan said when he spotted the ancient
instruments.  "These are old, very old.  I'm a bit
surprised that they exist at all.  There are vague
references in the archives to some of these pieces,
but none of us at Harper Hall thought they still
existed."

   He touched each piece reverently before putting
them back where they had been found.  "How wonderful,"
he said, "to have seen and touched these ancient
creations.  But I fear Lydel is correct.  They must
all remain here, where our ancient ancestors placed
them.  And that includes that jewel you discovered,
Mitchell," he added, for the young lad seemed
entranced by the bright glowing beauty of the object.

   Mitchell reluctantly returned the jewel to its
resting place.

   Within hours the entrance to the hidden room,
indeed the entrance to the cave itself, had been
sealed.  The dragons of Benden Weyr lifted their
riders, laden with heavy boulders, to forever close
off the mysteries discovered with -- until not even an
errant sunbeam would find its way into the now
forbidden place.

 . . .

If you like this little sci-fantasy tale you might be
interested in my other series: `Dark Wishes' in the
sci-fi/fantasy section of Nifty