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unsettled days, appoint and deputize Lady Anella as Lady Holder to ensure the management of the Hold until such time as our desired union can be publicly celebrated. My son, Campen, will actively discharge under my direction any duties required of the Lord Holder until such time as I am no longer immured.
    “I solemnly charge all of you, under pain of disgrace and exile, to observe the quarantine of this Hold, and to refrain from contact with any others until such time as Master Capiam, or his delegate Masterhealer, rescinds the quarantine restrictions. I require obedience to all restrictions made by me to ensure the safety and health of Fort, Pern’s first and largest Hold. Obey and we prosper. Deny and we fall.”
    She turned the sheet toward us and pointed to the end. “His signature and ring mark are here to be verified.” Then she insulted us again. “He charges me to discover which of you ventured perilously close to the internment camp today.” Her bulging eyes swept the lot of us.
    Just as I stepped forward, so did Peth, Jess, Nia, and Gabin.
    “Do not anger me,” Anella cried. “Lord Tolocamp only told me about one of you.”
    “We all must have had a look at one time or another,” said Jess, speaking out before I could gather my wits. “I’ve never seen an internment camp.”
    “Do you not understand? There are sick people there!” Anella’s face turned pale with fright. “If you catch the plague, you will infect the rest of us before you die.”
    “Just like our Lord Holder,” came a voice from somewhere in her audience.
    “Who said that? Who spoke so vilely?”
    There was no answer, only a shifting of boots on the flagstones. Even I could not identify the speaker—to congratulate him, or her. My private wager would fall on Theskin.
    “I will know who spoke!” Anella ranted on a bit more, but she would never learn the answer, having shattered any chance she might have had of gaining the trust and confidence of those in the Hall that night. “Lord Tolocamp will hear of the snake at his bosom!”
    She glared about the Hall one last time, then yanked at the heavily carved chair that my mother had filled so adequately. She was not strong enough to shift it, and a twitter greeted her attempt. Her mother signaled peremptorily to a drudge to assist her daughter. When Anella finally seated herself, her mother sat down beside her, the husband on her left. Those of us who ought to have taken our places on the dais declined to do so, and with a bit of angling, all were accommodated at the trestle tables.
    “Where are Lord Tolocamp’s children?” she demanded when we were arranged. “Campen!” She pointed at him, for him she knew by sight. “Theskin, Doral, Gallen. Assume your places.” She paused briefly; I could see her eyes blinking and an irritated twitch to her mouth. “Nalka? Is she not the oldest living daughter?”
    Uncle Munchaun nudged me. “You’d best go, Rill, even misnamed, for your father will know if you insult her so publicly.”
    I knew he was right. As I rose, I saw Anella’s mother murmur something to her.
    “And there is a harper in this Hold, is there not? We honor the harper.”
    Casmodian rose, bowed, and managed a smile. “Why did you seat yourselves below?” she demanded as Campen and Theskin mounted the dais steps.
    “With all due respect, Lady Anella,” Theskin said with a wry smile, “we thought your family would require the seating here.”
    Though courteously spoken, Theskin’s words were nonetheless a gibe, and she was not too dense to know it, even if she had no adequate retort. No one mentioned that she had not named all of Tolocamp’s surviving mature children, so Peth, Jess, and Gabin made a merrier meal than we others did.
    Bravely, Casmodian sat next to the father. I think they were the only two to converse that evening at the head table. I know I tasted nothing of even the little food I forced myself to eat. Unfortunately, now I had time to think