Chapters (33)
- Other Books by this Author
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- For Readers New to Pern
- Chronology of the Second Interval/Third Pass
- Fort Weyr, AL 508.2.2
- Fort Weyr, AL 508.2.5
- Fort Weyr, AL 508.2.6
- Fort Weyr, early morning, AL 508.2.7
- Fort Weyr, later, AL 508.2.8
- Telgar Weyr, later, AL 508.2.8
- Telgar Weyr, early morning, AL 508.2.9
- Telgar Weyr, late evening, AL 508.2.9
- Telgar Weyr, early morning, AL 508.2.10
- Telgar Weyr, later, AL 508.2.10
- Telgar Weyr, late evening, AL 508.2.10
- Telgar Weyr, Threadfall, AL 508.2.11
- Telgar Weyr, morning, AL 508.2.13
- Telgar Weyr, morning, AL 508.2.15
- Telgar Weyr, next morning, AL 508.2.16
- Telgar Weyr, morning, AL 508.4.15
- Ista Weyr, afternoon, AL 508.5.5
- Keroon Threadfall, morning, AL 508.5.21
- Telgar Weyr, evening, AL 508.5.26
- Telgar Weyr, early morning, AL 508.6.19
- Telgar Weyr, evening, AL 508.6.25
- Telgar Weyr, morning, AL 508.6.28
- Telgar Weyr, early evening, AL 508.7.17
- Fort Weyr, second hour, AL 507.11.18,
- Telgar Weyr, evening, AL 508.7.21
- About the Author
- Copyright
“I did what I had to,” Fiona replied.
“And now, you don’t have to anymore,” Cisca reminded her. “Do you think you can live with that?”
Fiona grimaced, her eyes troubled. “I don’t know.”
“Seven lost, eleven severely injured, and eighteen lightly injured,” Tintoval reported that evening as the Weyr recovered from their fourth Fall.
“That’s not all,” Cisca reminded her glumly, nodding to her to tell K’lior the rest.
“And ten more feverish.”
“We’ve one hundred and forty-eight fighting dragons,” K’rall murmured from his end of the table. “That’s nearly twice what we had two Falls back.”
“But,” K’lior objected, “as you just said, in two Falls we lost nearly half that number.”
“Our next Fall isn’t for another sixteen days,” M’kury said. “Couldn’t we send our injured back again to Igen?”
“I’m sure that Fiona could handle it,” T’mar said, glancing toward the abnormally subdued weyrwoman. She stirred at his gaze, giving him a bleak, unfathomable look. Longing? Dread? He couldn’t tell.
Fort Weyr, AL 508.2.6
THREE
Wheel and turn
Or bleed and burn.
Flame and dodge
Or between, dislodge.
Fort Weyr, AL 508.2.6
“It’s still hard for me to accept: You’re three Turns older than when I last saw you,” Tintoval marveled to Fiona as they started out of the Kitchen Cavern on their rounds of the sick and injured early the next morning.
“It’s just as hard for me to accept that everyone here hasn’t become three Turns wiser,” Fiona replied. She’d let Xhinna sleep in: The youngster had been up most of the night leading the weyrfolk in their ministrations of the worst injured dragons and riders.
“Wait!” a voice called from behind them. “Wait up!”
Terin raced to them. “I thought I could help.”
Fiona grinned and nodded in response.
“So,” Tintoval said to Terin as they started up the stairs to the highest weyr of their convalescents, “you’ve thirteen Turns now?”
Terin smiled. “Nearly fourteen.” She glanced at Fiona and added, “And Fiona has nearly seventeen. Did you know that she was born twelve days before me?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“It was funny back in Igen, celebrating our birthdays and our birthdays.”
“Excuse me?”
“One for our birthdates and the other for when we Turned,” Fiona explained.
“We turned in the thirteenth month,” Terin said when she noticed that Tintoval looked no more enlightened.
“Because we went back in time to the summer,” Fiona added.
They reached the level of their first injured pair, W’jer and Janorth, and turned right toward his weyr.
“I’ll check on W’jer if you two will look at Janorth,” Tintoval suggested as they approached the entrance to W’jer’s quarters.
“No,” Fiona said. Tintoval’s eyebrows furrowed in surprise. “You’ll need to learn to treat dragons, too.”
“I’m still learning my craft with humans, weyrwoman,” Tintoval told her reprovingly.