Anne Mccaffrey_ Dragonriders of Pern 20 by Dragon Harper

voice rasping in anger. “Say it loud so everyone can hear, or I’ll pop your lung.”
    “I yield,” Vaxoram said softly, flopping face down onto the ground.
    “Get up,” Kindan ordered, nudging him with the point of his blade. “On your knees.”
    Vaxoram pushed himself to his knees.
    “Yield.”
    “I yield,” Vaxoram said more loudly.
    “Say it all,” Kindan commanded.
    “I yield to Kindan, apprentice of the Harper Hall,” Vaxoram said, his voice rising loud enough to carry. “I yield his judgment on my body and I acknowledge forfeit to him.”
    “What forfeit?” Master Murenny’s voice called from the crowd.
    “He’s to serve me,” Kindan called back.
    “For how long?”
    “Until I release him,” Kindan replied.
    “Vaxoram, do you forfeit?” Murenny called formally.
    “I do,” Vaxoram replied, tears streaming from his eyes. He looked up at Kindan. “I forfeit. I will serve you until you release me.”
    Kindan kept his eyes on the older boy who had just agreed to become his personal drudge. And he was surprised to see a sense of relief in Vaxoram’s eyes. The bully had found his place in the Harper Hall—at Kindan’s side.

    “He’s not going to sleep with us, is he?” Nonala spoke quietly into Kindan’s ear as she and Kelsa congratulated him on his victory.
    Kindan glanced over at Vaxoram who was staring steadily ahead, his eyes dull, his bleak expression marred only by the tracks of tears that had cleared paths through the grime that encrusted his face.
    “Yes,” Kindan declared at once. “There’s a spare bunk nearby.”
    “But—” Nonala cut herself off as she caught Kindan’s set look. “Okay.”
    “Kindan!” Master Murenny’s voice cut through the noise of the massed harpers.
    “Master?” Kindan called back, glancing toward the sound of the harper’s voice.
    “Meet me in my quarters.”
    “Immediately,” Kindan replied. He glanced toward Vaxoram. On impulse, he handed his blade to him. “Clean up the blades, then clean yourself up.”
    Vaxoram took the blade and hefted it consideringly. Kindan could tell that the older lad was wondering what he could do to Kindan armed with two swords against his none. Kindan shook his head just fractionally and Vaxoram nodded in acquiescence—sword or no, Kindan would win, and Kindan knew that Vaxoram could see it in his eyes.
    “Yes, sir,” Vaxoram said.
    “No, call me harper,” Kindan ordered. Vaxoram nodded and started off on his chores, ignoring the sympathetic calls from his former cronies.

    “Come!” Masterharper Murenny called immediately upon Kindan’s knock. Kindan entered the room and was not surprised to see that Master Detallor and Weyrleader M’tal were already present.
    “You could have killed him,” M’tal said with no preamble.
    “That would have not been a good idea,” Kindan replied.
    “Explain,” Murenny said, waving his hand to turn the terse word into an invitation.
    “If I had killed him, the rest of the apprentices would have decided that perhaps Vaxoram was right, that there should be no girl apprentices because they caused trouble,” Kindan said. Murenny nodded in agreement. “And they might also decide someday that I deserved retribution.”
    “What will you do with him now?” M’tal asked.
    “Can he still take classes?” Kindan said, turning to the Masterharper.
    “Certainly.”
    “Then, in his free time he’ll serve me,” Kindan replied. “I’ll have him do any chores Selora needs, help guard the bath, and make sure that the other apprentices behave themselves.”
    “Do you trust him with the girls?” M’tal asked Murenny.
    “Do you?” Murenny asked, turning the question over to Kindan.
    Kindan frowned in thought before nodding. “Yes,” he said. “I think that he will be trustworthy. In time he’ll realize that if he wants a mate, he’ll need to seem appealing to women, and that his good behavior is his only chance to do that.”
    Murenny nodded.
    “I think he