I Read What?!

So we've made it to a few Moreta-based milestones: the vaccine's been discovered/invented, Nerilka's left home and adventure awaits.

I'm really looking forward to this. We actually don't know too much about where Nerilka goes from here. Moreta, rather understandably, had no reason to pay attention to a random traveling healer, so we've got a pretty blank slate for a while. We know she'll go to Ruatha, but will that be immediately? Or will she wander a bit?



So, we rejoin Nerilka as she's heading out. It's evening. She has a rough map to show her where to go, marked with the three northern holds that need serum and other urgent supplies. The healer, Macabir, tries to get her to stay until morning, but she really wants to avoid the chance that Desdra or someone else will recognize her.

I mean, they haven't yet, and Nerilka's been around for a while. But fair enough.

And actually, I'm wrong, she's only spent two days at the camp so far. I'd gotten the impression that it had been longer. It does make some of the praise and accolades for her bravery and ability seem a little much, but that's McCaffrey for you. And besides, she's hardly Jaxom. Nerilka actually HAS given up a considerable amount of luxury and comfort, and has willingly chosen to deal with the messier and more disgusting parts of the job that she's never had to deal with at home.

She does spare a moment to wonder if anyone, with the exception of Anella and her sisters, even missed her. And that's actually an interesting inclusion there. I wonder what, if anything, Anella has done regarding Nerilka's absence. Has she tattled to Tolocamp? Is she keeping quiet? It could be either really.

Anyway, Nerilka also realizes that she may have made a mistake. She's exhausted. Nursing is hard work, and she can barely stay awake in the saddle. I like this bit but I'm also going to nitpick a little:

Fortunately the runner was an honest beast, and once set on the track, continued for lack of other instruction. Reaching the first hold by midnight, I managed to inject the household before I collapsed. They let me sleep myself out, for which I berated the good lady when she fed me a huge breakfast at dawn, but she merely replied that the other holds knew I was coming and that was certainly better than wondering if they’d been totally forgotten.

1. I wonder if most healers would berate their hosts like this. The crafts do seem to have a lot of autonomy though. Even if they wouldn't, I like the beat for Nerilka. She's still a Lord's daughter at heart.

2. Considering she wakes up at dawn, it's hard to say that she's slept in too much. But I like that the Lady is not particularly bothered at all. I suppose if Tolocamp is your liege lord, you're probably already used to bullshit. A cranky healer/nurse would probably barely register.

Nerilka's next stop is near Ruatha, and she finally admits to herself that that's where she's going. Apparently, she'd wanted to go there for years anyway. And well, there's a lot of significance to the location now. Apparently only dragonriders had visited the main hold, and the rumors of devastation are "horrific." And indeed, we who read Moreta can verify that.

Nerilka figures she can be useful there: she can nurse the sick or even manage part of the Hold, and she can deal with her own grief and guilt for her mother and sisters' death. There's a nice bit of introspection here:

I was also beginning to realize that the plague had struck with a fine disregard for rank, health, age, and usefulness. It is true that the very young and the very old were more vulnerable, but the epidemic had claimed so many in the prime of life with so much living left to be done. If it suited me to clothe my action in the fine garb of sacrifice or expedience, as long as I performed the services required what matter the motives, hidden or open?

Fair enough. I don't think Nerilka is giving herself enough credit.

Anyway, the next minor Hold is "High Hill Hold" and Nerilka's drafted into helping deal with a long gash that one of the Holder's son's managed. Oh, here's the reference to the missing healer from the dramatis personae list at the beginning. The healer had gone down to Fort Hold, but Nerilka doesn't recognize the name. They realized that he must be dead.

Fortunately, Nerilka had apparently assisted with a few "surgeries" of this nature in the past, so she's fairly confident in her ability to stitch it up. She does tell us that, unsurprisingly, sewing flesh is very different from sewing fabric (fabric doesn't squirm). The Lady of the Hold is impressed. Nerilka also injects basically everyone "except the high hold shepherds who never came near enough to populated areas to catch an infection".

I feel like that's a lapse, but there you go.

Nerilka's got a bit of an ethical problem. These folks are assuming she's a trained healer. She doesn't like that, but they're pretty skeptical about the plague advice that she relays already (i.e. that death comes from secondary infections rather than the disease itself), and she thinks they'll ignore her advice outright if they don't think she's qualified. She knows the information is true.

I personally think Nerilka should tell the truth anyway, but I accept her logic. I don't mind disagreeing with a protagonist if the protagonist's decision is reasonable based on their perspective and knowledge. I mean, I also don't mind disagreeing with a protagonist when I know their decisions are supposed to be wrong. I don't think this is a right or wrong situation though.

Oh, there is some sad bits too. The Lord and Lady (Bestrum and Gana) are worried. They have a son and daughter who, with a servant, had gone to Ruatha's Gather. They've had no word and are hoping that Nerilka is going there next. Bestrum even sketches a map for her.

And while that happens, a blue dragon appears. It's being ridden by M'barak, the unfortunately named fellow that we met in Moreta! Hi, M'barak! Your name is still horrible! (Seriously, McCaffrey, you couldn't go M'ak? Or M'rak? Or even B'rak?) Anyway, the dude's looking for more "apprentice-blown glass bottles", which he's collecting for Ruatha.

I'm not sure how old M'barak is supposed to be, I realize. Moreta implied he was young, and here, Nerilka notes that "however young" he was to be given the courtesies due a dragonrider. So he must be REALLY young then.

Anyway, he tells them that runnerbeasts also need to be inocculated. He's surprised and happy to hear that Bestrum and Gana have already gotten their vaccines. We're told that M'barak had mistaken Nerilka for a Hold member, because (though the holders have no way to know this), Nerilka really doesn't look anything like a proper healer.

That's something I didn't expect to see but is pretty interesting to touch on: the systemic inequalities among Holds. It didn't really come up before. Menolly is from a small Hold, but they were pretty self-contained. We saw a BIT in White Dragon, with the way Jaxom freely made use of Corana and her Hold. But it's true that these tiny Holds wouldn't have a lot of access to much of anything. Especially with travel curtailed by Thread.

Anyway, this turns out good for Nerilka as M'barak would be happy to take her to Ruatha directly. Bestrum and Gana provide a few more folk to help with beasts. And it's just really nice to see GOOD folk willing to help people.

We also get Nerilka's first hand view of dragonkind!

This was by no means my first contact with a dragon, but certainly it was the most extended and personal. Dragons have a warm, very smooth soft hide, which leaves a spicy smell on your hands. Arith rumbled a lot, though M’barak assured me that it didn’t mean he was annoyed with his unusual burden. We padded the great glass bottles; Fort had more than its share of these apprentice efforts, although I cannot remember what Mother did with them.

There's a funny bit when Nerilka gets on behind M'barak, and is comforted to know that the two workers are behind her to fall off before she herself will be in danger. Hah. And of course, they go between:

If flying dragonback is exhilarating, going between is the essence of terror. Blackness, nothingness, a cold so intense my extremities ached, and only the knowledge that riders and dragons experienced the same thing daily with no ill effect kept me from screaming in fear. Just as I was sure I would suffocate, we were sunstruck again as Arith brought us by that unique draconic instinct to our destination. Then I had far more to concern me than that fleeting passage through black between.

I admit, that passage aches a little more after the end of Moreta.

We also get Nerilka's first hand view of Ruatha, and well...

I had never been to Ruatha Hold, but Suriana had sent me innumerable sketches of the establishment and had described its amenities time and again. The great Hold, carved from the living rock of the cliff face, could not be altered physically, but somehow it was completely unlike Suriana’s drawings. She had told me of the pleasant air about the Hold, of the hospitality and warmth and friendliness so different from the cool, detached formality of Fort. She had explained how many people, family and otherwise, were constantly in and out of the Hold. She had described the meadows, the racing flats, the lovely fields down to the river. She had not lived to describe the huge burial mounds or the charnel circle of blackened earth, the litter of broken travel wagons and personal effects that were scattered up the roadstead that had once been graced by Gather stalls, bright with banners and people and barter.

Oof. It's not all bad though. There are five people seated at court, soaking up the afternoon sun. There are two more dragons, one of which is a bronze. The other of which, belongs to Moreta.

“Moreta,” M’barak called, gesturing eagerly. The tall woman with short, curly blond hair turned back to him. The Fort Weyrwoman was the last person I expected to encounter at Ruatha.

I shall always remember that I had that opportunity to see Moreta again and at that particular moment in her life, when her face was tinged with sun and an inner serenity that I was not to understand until much later. She had, of course, been at Fort Hold in her capacity of Weyrwoman since she had assumed that responsibility on Leri’s retirement. But these were infrequent visits—on state occasions—so although I had been in the same Hall with her, we had never actually spoken together. I had had the impression that she was shy or reticent, but then Tolocamp did so much talking in that ponderous way of his that I doubt she’d have had a chance to speak.

Aw. I mentioned before that I think McCaffrey has a gift when it comes to writing about grief. And here, I think she's giving something to her readers too: those of us who read Moreta are grieving her. This is for us.

So anyway, two men and a slim dark haired girl come out to help with the bottles. One is Alessan and the other is a Harper in blue (Tuero?). The girl is Oklina. And honestly, it occurs to me that Nerilka is way more observant about women than men. It was true with Anella. It's true with Oklina, and now Moreta:

So, for the first time, I traded places with Moreta. I would have liked to have sustained the contact then, for she had a manner about her that made one want to get to know her better. She appeared considerably less aloof than she had seemed in the Hold. As Arith began his preparatory little run, Moreta did look back over her shoulder. But it couldn’t have been at me.

And so much of her reactions to Ruatha are wrapped up in what Suriana told her or would think.

Anyway, I enjoy the idea that Nerilka might be bi, and now I'm wondering how much that might have influenced her reaction to her father's new wife.

Alessan greets them with friendly warmth, but Nerilka initially mistakes his tone for bitter when he talks about the grim realities of Ruatha. Nerilka wonders what Suriana would have thought of her arrival.

We get a look at Alessan now though:

Alessan turned his smiling light-green eyes to me, and all that Suriana had told me about him rattled through my head. But the sketches that she had also sent did not do him justice, or else he had changed dramatically from that young and rather reckless-looking man. There was now considerably more character about the eyes and mouth, and an ineffable sadness, despite the smile of his greeting—a sadness that would fade, but never leave. He was thin, had been fever-gaunt; the broad bones of his shoulders pushed through his tunic and his hands were rough, calloused, cracked, and pricked, more like a common drudge’s than a Lord Holder’s.

A plague would do that, I suppose. Anyway, Nerilka introduces herself as Rill, and tells him that she has experience with runners (does she? I don't remember that coming up. Though I guess it's reasonable), as well as experience in healing and medicines. The brothers from Bestrum's Hold had already introduced themselves, they're named Pol and Sal.

Anyway, Nerilka gets to be immediately useful, as Oklina asks if she has supplies for the racking cough. Pol gets to be blunt and ask after the son and daughter of his Lord Holder:

“I’ll look at the records,” the harper said gently, but we had all noticed the shuddering expression that dampened the smile in Alessan’s eyes. And Oklina had given a little gasp. “I’m Tuero,” the harper went on, smiling to reassure us all. “Alessan, what’s the order of business now?”

Aw. Everyone's putting on a brave face, but it's really not okay here.

Anyway, there are lots of tasks. The brothers are horrified at the look of the runner beasts, but some of their build may be because the survivors come from Alessan's racing line. Alessan tells them that most of the beasts that his father had bred died. The brothers are happier though Alessan tells them that Dag had saved some of the breeding stock.

So one of the big tasks is making more serum from the blood of the plague survivors. Everyone gets involved with cleaning and sanitizing a place to make said serum. (Nerilka notes that Alessan's hands are red already, probably from dealing with the very strong cleaning fluid). Nerilka is also a workaholic, and kind of ends up in the kind of zone where Alessan has to shake her out of it so that everyone can go to bed.

The chapter ends here.

So our couple has met. And I have to admit, McCaffrey does a very nice job of laying out some initial groundwork here for mutual respect and compatibility. And I can already see how what Nerilka's learned about managing a Hold will be just as useful as her healing skills in the near future. It's a nice set up.

I am pretty worried about Alessan, I have to admit. He seemed to be holding up pretty well in Moreta, but it's starting to look like maybe he was putting on a facade for someone who is under at least as much pressure as he was. Here, we're glimpsing that he's not as okay as he seems. And we know things are going to get worse for the poor guy soon enough.