Anne Mccaffrey_ Dragonriders of Pern 20 Read Online Free

said, then pulled his head close to her mouth. Kindan listened with growing astonishment.
    “By the First Egg, no!” he exclaimed when she finished.
    Kelsa gave him a knowing look. “Oh, you’ll do it.”
    “And what makes you say so?” Kindan wondered. “Vaxoram will having me chasing down tunnel snakes—”
    “You’ll do it,” Kelsa repeated firmly. “You’ll do it because you know it’s right.” She pushed him toward their classroom. “Don’t say anything now, we’re late.”
    “I can’t do it all on my own,” Kindan complained.
    “Of course not.” Kelsa’s response was in such an agreeable tone that Kindan’s further protests faltered in shock. “Get Verilan to help,” she added with a grin. When Kindan drew breath for another protest, Kelsa continued, “And I’ll help.” She glanced toward the kitchen quarters and shivered. “I’ll be glad to get out of there—all
they
talk about is cooking!”
    By evening everything was ready. With Verilan’s help, Kindan and Kelsa had put up a sturdy canvas partition separating the back corner of the large apprentice dormitory from the rest. Inside they placed one of the bunk beds and a chest of drawers.
    The older apprentices were at first wary, then irate that they had to change their lifestyle to accommodate girls.
    “The cook’s quarters were enough for one, why not two?” the senior apprentices had grumbled.
    “We’re harpers,” Kelsa said, throwing her arm around a confused and reluctant Nonala. “We should be with the other apprentices.”
    “We can’t have girls here!” Vaxoram, the senior apprentice, declared when he learned the purpose of the canvas partition.
    “I suppose we could get one of the spare journeyman’s rooms,” Kelsa said judiciously, knowing full well that Vaxoram was hoping to make journeyman soon and had been eyeing the vacant rooms proprietarily.
    “Hrrmph!” Vaxoram replied, storming out of the dormitory.
    “Where are you going?” Kelsa called after him.
    “To talk to the Masters!”
    Vaxoram, failing to convince the Masters to provide the girls with separate quarters, had tried to shame and scare them into demanding it on their own—or better, to ask to leave the Harper Hall.
    It started with silly pranks, water left on the floor just outside the canvas partition. When Nonala tripped and banged her head in the middle of the night, Kindan moved his bunk close by and kept a wary eye out for further pranksters.
    It soon escalated to outright harassment, with the older apprentices actively preventing both girls from attending classes. Kelsa bore up well under the strain—tough and wiry, she merely elbowed or pinched her way past the offenders. But Nonala was a milder sort, and the glares and jeers of the older boys were hard on her.
    Kindan had only to hear her sobbing softly in her bed one night to decide that he would no longer tolerate the behavior of the other apprentices. Stealthily he left his bunk in the night, crossed over to hers, and grabbed her hand. Seeing that he’d startled her, he smiled and patted her hand in reassurance. Nonala smiled back, sat up, and hugged him. Kindan held her tightly until he felt her relax, then let her go. Nonala lay back down in her bed, still holding his hand. He remained there until she fell back asleep, then silently returned to his bed. As he did, he caught sight of Kelsa, smiling at him in approval.
    The next day, Nonala had shown remarkable skill in defending herself when another prankster tried to trip her, and her would-be assailant found himself sprawled on the ground.
    “I’ve three older brothers,” Nonala told the older boy as she looked down on him. “They taught me how to fight.”
    The older apprentice pulled himself up and looked menacingly down at Nonala, his hands clenched tightly to his sides. Things might have gotten ugly if first Kindan and then Verilan hadn’t taken a stand on either side of her.
    “Don’t you need to be in class,