Chapters (55)
- Title Page
- Map
- Prologue
- VOLUME I: DRAGONFLIGHT
- Dedicatory Note
- PART I Weyr Search
- PART II Dragonflight
- PART III Dust Fall
- PART IV The Cold Between
- VOLUME II: DRAGONQUEST
- Dedication
- I Morning at Mastercrafthall, Fort Hold / Several Afternoons Later at Benden Weyr / Midmorning (Telgar Time) at Mastersmithcrafthall, Telgar Hold
- II Evening (Fort Weyr Time). Meeting of the Weyrleaders at Fort Weyr
- III Morning over Lemos Hold
- IV Midday at Southern Weyr
- V Midmorning at Ruatha Hold / Early Evening at Benden Weyr
- VI Midmorning at Southern Weyr / Early Morning at Nabol Hold: Next Day
- VII Midmorning at Benden Weyr / Early Morning at the Mastersmithcrafthall, Telgar Hold
- VIII Midmorning at Southern Weyr
- IX Afternoon at Southern Weyr: Same Day
- X Early Morning in Harpercrafthall at Fort Hold / Afternoon at Telgar Hold
- XI Early Morning at Benden Weyr
- XII Morning at Benden Weyr / Predawn at High Reaches Weyr
- XIII Night at Fort Weyr: Six Days Later
- XIV Early Morning at Ruatha Hold / Midday at Benden Weyr
- XV Evening at Benden Weyr: Impression Banquet
- XVI Evening at Benden Weyr / Later Evening at Fort Weyr
- VOLUME III: THE WHITE DRAGON
- Dedication
- I At Ruatha Hold, Present Pass, 12th Turn
- II Benden Weyr, Present Pass, 13th Turn
- III Morning at Ruatha Hold, and Smithcrafthall at Telgar Hold, Present Pass, 15.5.9
- IV Ruatha Hold, Fidello’s Hold, and Various Points Between, 15.5.10-15.5.16
- V Morning in Harpercraft Hall, Fort Hold, Afternoon in Benden Weyr, Late Afternoon in Harpercraft Hall, 15.5.26
- VI Ruatha Hold and Southern Hold, 15.5.27-15.6.2
- VII Morning at Ruatha Hold, 15.6.2
- VIII Ruatha Hold, Fort Weyr, Fidello’s Hold, 15.6.3-15.6.17
- IX Early Summer, Harpercraft Hall and Ruatha Hold, 15.7.3
- X From Harpercraft Hall to the Southern Continent, Evening at Benden Weyr, 15.7.4
- XI Late Morning at Benden Weyr, Early Morning at Harpercraft Hall, Midday at Fidello’s Hold, 15.7.5
- XII Ruatha Hold, Fidello’s Hold, Threadfall, 15.7.6
- XIII A Cove in the Southern Continent, 15.7.7-15.8.7
- XIV Early Morning at Harpercraft Hall, Midmorning at Ista Weyr, Midafternoon at Jaxom’s Cove, 15.8.28
- XV Evening at Jaxom’s Cove and Late Evening at Ista Weyr, 15.8.28
- XVI At the Cove Hold, 15.8.28-15.9.7
- XVII Fort Hold, Benden Weyr, at Cove Hold, and at Sea aboard the Dawn Sister, 15.10.1-15.10.2
- XVIII At the Cove Hold the Day of Master Robinton’s Arrival, 15.10.14
- XIX Morning at the Cove Hold, Star-gazing in Late Evening, Next Morning, Discovery at the Mountain, 15.10.15-15.10.16
- XX At the Mountain and at Ruatha Hold, 15.10.18-15.10.20
- XXI Next Day at the Mountain, Cove Hold, and the Southern Hatching Ground, 15.10.21
- Afterword
- Dragondex
- Other Books by Anne McCaffrey
- To learn more about other great titles from Ballantine Books . . .
- Copyright
The Weyrleader acknowledged S’lel’s salute and indicated the bronze rider should be seated. F’lar had given thought to the seating arrangements in the Council Room, carefully interspersing brown and bronze dragonriders with Holders and Craftsmen. There was now barely room to move in the generously proportioned cavern, but there was also no room in which to draw daggers if tempers got hot.
A hush fell on the gathering, and F’lar looked up to see that the stocky, glowering ex-dragonman from Ruatha had stopped on the threshold of the Council. He slowly brought his hand up in a respectful salute to the Weyrleader. As F’lar returned the salute, he noticed that the tic in Lytol’s left cheek jumped almost continuously.
Lytol’s eyes, dark with pain and inner unquiet, ranged the room. He nodded to the members of his former wing, to Larad and Zurg, head of his own weavers’ craft. Stiff-legged, he walked to the remaining seat, murmuring a greeting to T’sum on his left.
F’lar rose.
“I appreciate your coming, good Lords and Craftmasters. The Threads spin once again. The first attack has been met and seared from the sky. Lord Vincet,” and the worried Holder of Nerat looked up in alarm, “we have dispatched a patrol to the rainforest to do a low-flight sweep to make certain there are no burrows.”
Vincet swallowed nervously, his face paling at the thought of what Threads could do to his fertile, lush holdings.
“We shall need your best junglemen to help—”
“Help? But you said... the Threads were seared in the sky?”
“There is no point in taking the slightest chance,” F’lar replied, implying that the patrol was only a precaution instead of the necessity he knew it would be.
Vincet gulped, glancing anxiously around the room for sympathy, and found none. Everyone would soon be in his position.
“There is a patrol due at Keroon and at Igen.” F’lar looked first at Lord Corman, then at Lord Banger, who gravely nodded. “Let me say by way of reassurance that there will be no further attacks for three days and four hours.” F’lar tapped the appropriate chart. “The Threads will begin approximately here on Telgar, drift westward through the southernmost portion of Crom, which is mountainous, and on, through Ruatha and the southern end of Nabol.”
“How can you be so certain of that?”
F’lar recognized the contemptuous voice of Meron of Nabol.
“The Threads do not fall like a child’s jackstraws, Lord Meron,” F’lar replied. “They fall in a definitely predictable pattern; the attacks last exactly six hours. The intervals between attacks will gradually shorten over the next few Turns as the Red Star draws closer. Then, for about forty full Turns, as the Red Star swings past and around us, the attacks occur every fourteen hours, marching across our world in a timeable fashion.”