Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Join us!
Triad Weyrs welcomes new members - join us to create a character and begin your adventure on Pern!

   

Forgotten Password? | Join Triad Weyrs | Club Forum | Search | Credits

Spite and venom

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 26th September 2007

Characters: Erassa, Imery
Description: Erassa runs into trouble in the kitchens
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 5, day 26 of Turn 4


"Well, well, look who's here. Gracing us lowlies with your presence, my lady?" One of the kitchen workers remarked mockingly when she spotted Erassa entering the kitchen.

The fostermother bristled at the tone in Imery's voice. "We are out of milk for the children. Could I please have a pitcher?"

"Of course your ladyship," Imery said sarcastically. She got up deliberately slowly. She was notoriously sharp tongued and of that she spared no ones feelings. "Can't have the Lord's children go thirsty, can we?"

"No, we certainly can't," Erassa agreed icily. "Same as any other children in the Hold."

"Don't get too smart, you're still a dragonrider's whore with a bastard," Imery hissed venomously. It was pure envy. Looking after children was much more prefertable than peeling tubers and washing pots.

Erassa's eyes narrowed and she fought down her fury. Imery could say what she wanted about her, but not her son. She knew exactly where this hatred came from. "And you're just an ignorant kitchen wench who will never be anything more than that."

"Ooh, she bites!" Imery said, but she was barely able to hid how much that needlethorn had stung. "Tell me," she asked when she filled the milkpitcher, "Have you bedded his lordship yet, or did you let that Felyna get him first?"

She knew Imery wanted to get a rise out of her by making her jealous at another woman's name. It seemed she took stalk in too many rumors.
Erassa found the woman's assumption rather amusing. "I know you wouldn't understand, being that you are yet to have children yourself, Imery, but with six children in the household, two of them babes, sex is the last thing I am concerned with."

"Or maybe he's just too smart to be interested in dragonrider's left overs," Imery snarled back.

Erassa sneared at her contemptuously. "Ah, well, then, if that's the case what have you left to accuse me of, Imery? Of having run away to the Weyr with a dragonrider? Everyone knows that much already. I'm afraid that's very old news."

Imery couldn't figure out anything snide to say to that."Here's the milk," she said, deliberedly sloshing some of it to Erassa's clothes.

The fostermother's first impulse was to take the pitcher and poor it all over the saucy woman's head. But she had to maintain a little dignity, no matter how much she deserved it. **For Beleran..** She still seethed all the way to the door where she paused and turned to look at her antagonizer over her shoulder. "I'll tell you what, Imery. If I ever do start sleeping with the Lord Holder, you'll be the first one to know." She fixed the woman with a steely gaze and her voice was an icy match. "I promise you that." Let that saucy bitch think on that.

Imery was thinking it. She was also thinking that no one wanted to sleep with her, not even her husband. Then the cook was calling her back to work. Those tubers didn't unpeel themselves.

Last updated on the October 1st 2007


View Complete Copyright Info | Credits | Visit Anne McCaffrey's Website
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are © Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2013, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author. The Dragonriders of Pern© is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited.