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
F’nor glanced over at Mirrim, Brekke’s foster child. The two green lizards perched asleep on her shoulders. The injured brown, swathed from neck to tail in bandage, was cradled in her lap. Mirrim was sitting with the erect stiffness of someone who dares not move a muscle. And she was smiling with an incredulous joy.
“Mirrim is very young for this,” he said, shaking his head.
“On the contrary, she’s as old as most weyrlings at their first Impression. And she’s more mature in some ways than half a dozen grown women I know with several babes of their own.”
“Oh-ho. The female of the species in staunch defense...”
“It’s no teasing matter, F’nor,” Brekke replied with a sharpness that put F’nor in mind of Lessa. “Mirrim will do very well. She takes every responsibility to heart.” The glance Brekke shot her fosterling was anxious as well as tender.
“I still say she’s young...”
“Is age a prerequisite for a loving heart? Does maturity always bring compassion? Why are some weyrbred boys left standing on the sand and others, never thought to have a chance, walk off with the bronzes? Mirrim Impressed three, and the rest of us, though we tried, with the creatures dying at our feet, only managed to attach one.”
“And why am I never told what occurs in my own Weyr?” Kylara’ demanded in a loud voice. She stood on the threshold of the Infirmary, her face suffused with an angry flush, her eyes bright and hard.
“As soon as I finished this splinting, I was coming to tell you,” Brekke replied calmly, but F’nor saw her shoulders stiffen.
Kylara advanced on the girl, with such overt menace that F’nor stepped around Brekke, wondering to himself as he did so whether Kylara was armed with more than a bad temper.
“Events moved rather fast, Kylara,” he said, smiling pleasantly. “We were fortunate to save as many of the lizards as we did. Too bad you didn’t hear Canth broadcast the news. You might have Impressed one yourself.”
Kylara halted, the full skirts of her robe swirling around her feet. She glared at him, twitching the sleeve of her dress but not before he saw the black bruise on her arm. Unable to attack Brekke, she turned, spotting Mirrim. She swept up to the girl, staring down in such a way that the child looked appealingly toward Brekke. At this point, the tension in the room roused the lizards. The two greens hissed at Kylara but it was the crystal bugle of the bronze on G’sel’s shoulder that diverted the Weyrwoman’s attention.
“I’ll have the bronze! Of course. The bronze’ll do fine,” she exclaimed. There was something so repellent about the glitter in her eyes and the nasty edge to her laugh that F’nor felt the hair rise on the back of his neck.