Fire!

Writers: Estelle, Nici
Date Posted: 31st July 2005

Characters: Enrizial, Kohler
Description: Enrizial and Kohler help to fight a fire at the Harper Hall
Location: Emerald Falls Hold, Harper Hall
Date: month 7, day 13 of Turn 3

Enrizial was wakened by an urgent knocking at the door of his bedchamber, and shouts outside. Still drowsy, he gently eased his arm from where it curled around his Lady wife and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes.

"This had better be important," he muttered and got out of bed. Someone would suffer for it if not! Still, his fingers were clumsy as he struggled into his dressing-gown, and there was a cold feeling in his belly. No-one would dare disturb the Lord Holder's sleep if there was not some dire emergency, and in these troubled times, with Thread falling, bandits roaming and unrest among the holders, he dreaded to think what it might be.

He wrenched open the door to reveal a holder and a guardsman, both pale-faced and nervous. The guard's fist was raised to knock at the door again, and both were rendered momentarily speechless by his glare. "Well?"

"Fire, milord!" the holder gasped.

"_Fire_?" That woke him up. "Where?"

"The Harper Hall. The Harper Hall is ablaze!"

"Thank Faranth," Enrizial murmured, unable to help himself in the shameful relief that came from realising it was not _his_ Hold that was afire, and that his wife and daughters were safe. The holder and guardsman both stared at him in shock, and he quickly recovered. "We must rouse the Hold and go to their aid. Gefan, go and wake the Steward and Captain Sota and have all able-bodied men run to the Hall. And you, wake the Headwoman - she'll know where there are buckets. We'll form a chain from the river. Go!" He waited only long enough to see each man run off on his errand before closing the door and switching on the light, looking around for yesterday's cast-off clothes.

"Enrizial?" his wife asked. She was sitting up in bed, not looking at all sleepy, her green eyes wide. "What's happened?"

"There is a fire at the Harper Hall," Enrizial said, his voice muffled as he struggled into a tunic. "The Hold will give them aid in putting out the blaze. You stay here, Anaia - I'll explain when I get back."

He left before she could protest, and ordered a guardsman who he caught running down the hallways that Lady Anaia was _not_ to leave his rooms unless the Hold itself caught fire. The last thing he needed was his soft-hearted and impulsive wife running into the flames at the Hall to try to rescue some harper!

***

The entrance hall of the Hold soon filled with sleepy men and drudges handing out buckets. There was some grumbling, but not much. Though the Harper Hall's recent decision to take on a female crafter had shocked everyone, it was hard to break the habit of Turns of respect for Pern's teachers, givers of justice and keeper of tradition.

Enrizial spoke quickly with the Steward and the Captain, and the disorderly crowd was formed into lines of men carrying buckets, who left the Hold and began to jog in the direction of the Harper Hall. Though the Lord Holder said nothing, he guessed that by now it would be too late to save the buildings. It would take many precious minutes before they reached the Hall and by that time the fire might be out of control.

He caught sight of Kohler among the volunteers and joined him, wondering if working alongside the men would earn him some of the same inexplicable respect that Lord Alalir seemed to command.

"You didn't have to join us," he said apologetically as they passed through the great doors of the Hold and out into the night. "I gave no orders to disturb the sleep of honoured guests."

Kohler looked at him in surprise. "Lord Enrizial, you think I'd watch this from my bedroom window and have a snack?." He shook his head. "I have to help."

The heavy scent of burning wood and filled the air. While now fortified outside with stone and slate after the return of Thread, many buildings foundations had been made of wood in anticipation of the great threat never returning again.

So buildings burned, and they burned from within, creating great gouts of smoke that smelled acrid and made your throat tickle. "We won't be able to save this."

"We've got to try," Enrizial said grimly, but he knew that Kohler was right. The roof had already partially fallen in along one wing - presumably where the fire had started - and flames were leaping up into the night. If anything - or anyone - was inside, it would have been totally consumed by now. Now that the first shock had passed, he began to realise what a disaster the loss of the Hall would be for his Hold - and not just in terms of prestige.

They formed up into part of a line between the river and the Hall, passing buckets from man to man until they reached the fire. The effect of tossing a mere bucket of water on the inferno seemed pathetically insignificant to Enrizial, like trying to attack a furious feline with a blunted needle.

Clearly, nothing was going to stop the fire until it ran out of fuel, and it raged until daybreak when finally there was nothing left to burn. Enrizial could only count himself fortunate that the harpers had diligently observed the Weyr's instructions to root up all unnecessary greenery. The bare ground meant that there was no way for the fire to spread to adjoining buildings. A little grove of fellis trees, however, had burned like torches once sparks had leapt to their leaves. Their blackened skeletons stood out starkly against the greying sky that heralded the coming of dawn.

As the fire died down, the holders moved in to pour water over the last glowing coals, sending up huge gouts of steam amid piles of soot-streaked rubble and the blackened remnants of furniture. Enrizial's clothes were as filthy as anyone's, and when he raised a hand to his brow to wipe away sweat it came away grimy.

"I don't understand how it could have happened," he said, staring in disbelief at the wreckage of what had only the day before been a prosperous and successful Crafthall. "They light the Hall with glows, so the only place where they have naked flame is in the kitchens, in the south wing. Yet the east wing is the worst damaged...I'm not sure what they have there. Workshops, I think. And even in the kitchens they take great care with fire."

Kohler shook his head. "I hate to be thinking what I'm thinking..." He took a cloth out of his trouser pocket, always used to having to wipe his brow and handed it to Enrizial. He had to admit he was pleased the Lord Holder had assisted. He wondered if he would have, before his half-brother had ousted him from power and he'd been forced to 'hide in plain sight' at Green Valley for so long. He like to think he'd had _some_ positive influence on him.

"What _are_ you thinking?"

"Well, I heard a lot of talk after dinner when I spoke among the other holders. Apparently, there's some controvery over a female crafter. Some were _not_ happy."

"Not happy?" Enrizial echoed in disbelief. "You think someone could have done _this_ - " and he gestured towards the ruins of the Harper Hall, " - on purpose?"

"It's a possibility."

The Lord Holder shook his head. "I can't believe it. Angry talk is one thing, but to burn down the Hall - someone could have been killed, and then we'd be hunting a murderer." It was a miracle that all the harpers had got out of the building alive, and some of them had inhaled smoke and were being treated by the healers.

"It only takes one heated moment of anger to galvanize almost any group to action." His voice lowered even more. "Enrizial, you should know that more than anyone.

Enrizial gazed at the ruined Hall, blinking as the smoke stung his eyes. "No offense, Kohler, but I hope you're wrong. If one of my holders is responsible for this..." He remembered, guiltily, his own angry words when he'd been told about the female apprentice. There had been plenty of holders around to hear him - could he have inadvertently been the cause of the fire? "Well, I just hope it turns out to have been an accident."

He called over one of the crowd of holders standing gaping at the wreckage and told him to run back to the Hold and order the Headwoman to find somewhere for the harpers to sleep that night. There'd be time enough to discover the cause of the fire in the morning, when everyone had rested.

Last updated on the September 6th 2005

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