Things Are Turning Around

Writers: Eimi
Date Posted: 21st February 2006

Characters: Benaroy, Milena
Description: Lord Benaroy of Amber Hills Hold reflects on the past
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 10, day 19 of Turn 3

Benaroy gently rolled the hide back up in his wrinkled hands. It wasn't easy. His arthritis was acting up again. The ties would be too much. Instead he clutched it to his chest as he gazed out his window and across the wind blown landscape and to the amber hills, now covered in dusty white snow. It was good news. The Hold would last the winter with food to spare. No rationing needed to get them through the season this time.

It had been a good turn. Hopefully just the first of many. Benaroy missed the days when his Hold could count on stocked stores. But bounty came from the labor of holders to work the fields and raise the livestock. Their numbers were growing, and every turn more and more children graduated harper classes and took their place in the fields. They could even spare _three_ boys to be sent away to crafthalls and another had been apprenticed to one of the technicians. This was made possible by the fact that four fosterlings had actually come to _their Hold_! Things were looking up!

The Lord Holder sighed as he looked out over his frozen land. This was how it used to be - before the plague, when their Hold had been full of people and not empty rooms. Things had been so much simpler then...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Will you ever enjoy a party _half_ so much as you enjoy watching your precious runners, Benaroy?" a teasing voice asked irreverently.

"I see you have arrived just in time, Royah," the young Lord Holder chuckled as he turned towards the man leaning against the fence of the pen next to him. "Could it be my wandering brother has returned to me?"

"Well, I heard that you had been confirmed as Lord Holder a few months ago. I felt it was time." Royah was a turn and a half older than his brother, but he had never had hopes of a claim to their father's seat at the Council table. Benaroy had always been the obvious choice, and just to remind everyone of that he had left the Hold of his birth, his father's funeral fires still burning. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, brother."

"Please, Royah, don't apologize to me. I knew it was not a slight against myself. And I would not let any man doubt your love for our father." He turned to face Royah. "Have you come back to me now? Or is this just a visit?"

The elder brother smiled proudly. What a great Holder his brother was making. So much like their father. "I'm back, m'Lord."

"Good," his brother said as he placed an affectionate, and relieved hand on Royah's shoulder. "Good man. Because the Lord of Amethyst Cliff has a young daughter who is now of marriageable age, and..."

"Oh shards, not you too," Royah chuckled. "Isn't it good enough that you married the man's niece?"

"A niece is a start, but a niece is not a daughter," Benaroy stated matter of factly. "Not to say that I haven't come to truly love my wife of course." The Lord Holder knew that he was very lucky in that. She had already given him two fine sons. They were trying for a daughter now for her. Besides, daughters could make alliances too...

Royah shook his head. He knew it. "You've inherited father's ambitious gene, I see. Just what do you hope to gain from marrying me off to her, eh?"

"Maybe I could finally convince the Lord Holder to quit the fields at the mouth of the valley," Benaroy muttered.

"And just how long have we been disputing that border with Amethyst Cliff? And how many marriages have been made with the hope that we could better them in some way?" It was a never ending cycle. Royah liked Amber Hills the way it was, but Lord Holder after Lord Holder for generations had always looked at the other Hold and dreamed of proving to Pern they were somehow better.

Benaroy would never understand how his brother could love their Hold and yet have no reverence for its politics and history. "Do you think I am concerned if Amethyst Cliff has an extra field or two somewhere? No. But our herdbeasts had been grazing in the mouth of the valley for generations before they tried to move in and take that land from us."

"Tried? It seems they successfully took it! Yes, and that was a generation ago!" "All right, all right," the Lord Holder said, his hands raised in defeat. "All right, Royah, I won't marry you to her. But mark my words, brother. Someday I will have that land back for our family. Just wait."

Royah shook his head in amused acceptance. "I believe you Lord Benaroy.
I do. And under your management Amber Hills will grow and prosper and surpass Amethyst Cliff in every way that we are not already." And it just might kill Benaroy trying as it had their father. He sighed as he looked out over the field and watched as the runners grazed lazily in the summer sun. "Today is a fine day for a Gather."

"Yes, it is," the Lord Holder smiled and closed his eyes as he lifted his face skyward, feeling the warmth of the sun against his skin. Wait, he hadn't seen any dragons arrive yet... "How did you get here, Royah?"

His brother shrugged. "In the caravan of traders come to trade their wares at the great Amber Hills Summer Gather. We all heard it was a another bountiful year, and they all hope that means you have marks to spare." "Leave it to you, Royah, to make friends in all sorts of company,"
Benaroy chuckled. "Was it Belkin's caravan?"

"I'm the son of a Lord Holder! Do you think I would travel with any _but_ Belkin?" Royah asked in his best pompous tone.

Benaroy laughed. His brother could always make him laugh. "Yes, of course, none but Belkin would do. And how is our good friend?"

"Well enough. But his family seems to have been hit with a lingering summer flu of some kind." Royah frowned. Summer flus were nothing to take lightly. They always seemed to be the worst.

Benaroy also felt a twinge of concern. "I hope it will not keep them from enjoying the festivities! And an Amber Hills Gather would not be the same without Belkin's stories and anecdotes."

Royah laughed as he threw an arm around his brother's shoulder. "Ah, don't worry. He said he could suffer through a trifling cold. He would never miss your first Summer Gather. This will be one to remember, brother!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Royah had been right on that score. It had been a Gather to remember. But not for Belkin's anecdotes, or for the bounty of Amber Hills. It was not long after that day that the "lingering summer flu" showed itself to be what it truly had been - plague. Plague that had in one day been spread to the entire population of Amber Hills and it's minor holdings. Benaroy had survived, but not his wife. Not his sons. Not more than half his Holders. And not his funny older brother. Royah had been the first of Amber Hills to die, just a day after Belkin and his family.

Unashamed tears streamed down the old Lord Holders face as he looked out across the blustering, cold snow. What a glory his Hold had been. And what a sharding mess he had made of it. But now, after sixty some turns, things were turning around. He would not see Amber Hills returned to its former glory, but some of his younger sons may. They would have the energy and the drive to carry his vision forward. Benaroy would choose carefully from among his sons. He had to find the one that would make Amber Hills great again. And there was not much time...

Last updated on the February 21st 2006

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Things Are Turning Around