Chapters (64)
- Other titles by Anne McCaffreyPublished by Ballantine Books:
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PROLOGUE
- At a Gather—6.15.30
- Part 1
- Turnover at Landing—1.1.31 Present Pass Aivas—Aivas Adjusted Turn 2553
- Benden Weyr—1.1.31
- Southern Hold—1.1.31
- Healer Hall—1.1.31
- Back at Landing—1.2.31
- Fort Hold—late night—1.1.31
- Fort Hold Runner Station—1.2.31
- Keroon Printer Hall—1.3.31
- Benden Weyr—midday—1.3.31
- Monaco Bay Weyr—five days later—1.8.31
- Part 2
- Ruatha Hold—local time 12:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Telgar Weyr—local time 4:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Benden Weyr—local time 6:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Harper Hall—local time 1:00 in the morning—1.9.31
- Landing—local time 10:12 mid-morning—1.9.31
- In the Conference Room at Landing—1.9.31
- Monaco Weyr—10:22 in the morning—Timing it
- In the Conference Room at Landing—local time 1:10–1.9.31
- Sunrise Cliff Seahold—timed-back
- In the Conference Room—local time 2:12 at Landing—1.9.31
- Back at Landing—local time—3:40
- Harper Hall—5:00 in the morning, and Southern Hold—2:00 in the morning–1.9.31
- Landing—late afternoon—1.9.31
- Same time at Keroon Printer Hall—local time 11:15—1.9.31
- Later, on an unusually bright evening at Landing, Sunrise Cliff, and Honshu Hold—1.9.31
- Part 3
- Honshu—1.10.31
- Circle Runner Station—1.18.31
- Harper Hall
- Benden Weyr—
- Benini Hold—east Monaco and Honshu—1.20.31
- Harper Hall—1.28.31
- Honshu Hold—2.1.31
- Fort Hold—2.13.31
- Printer Hall at Wide Bay—same night
- Honshu Hold—2.9.31
- Night at Wide Bay—2.9.31
- Ruatha Hold—late evening—2.9.31
- Core Hold—two days before Council Meeting—2.26.31
- Part 4
- Honshu Weyrhold—2.26–27.31
- Council Meeting at Telgar Hold—3.1.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.01.31
- Interim at Benden and elsewhere
- Honshu Weyrhold—time passing slowly
- Landing—3.21.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.21.31
- Southern Hold—3.23.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.27.31
- Benden Weyr—3.27.31
- Cove Hold—same day, same approximate time
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Right up through his boots—and the bare feet of most of the seaholders—came the shake! A boom that beat eardrums with its intensity. Several people fell to the sands; even the dragons were unbalanced, raising wings to steady themselves.
“D’you believe me now, Binness?” F’lessan demanded, brushing sand off his leathers.
Two of the women began to keen, nearly as unnerving a sound as dragons made when one of their kind died.
“Believe you, dragonrider!” The Journeyman could also see the disturbed ripple of the waves in the bay. “Go! Go! Pack!” Wide gestures of his arms sent the women scattering. “Lias, spread that net. Lads, go with your mothers. Collect everything you can carry. Petan, get the other nets. You sure your dragons are strong, bronze rider?”
“As strong as they need to be, Journeyman,” F’lessan replied, grinning. He gestured for C’reel and St’ven to help spread nets. “We’ll need rope …”
“Line …” C’reel corrected him when Lias looked puzzled.
“Line, then, in the corners, to make a knot for the dragons to lift the nets with. Where’s the most sheltered place up on those cliffs, Binness? Are there woods? You’ll need shelter. There will be winds and rain, not to mention the high seas.”
“Plenty shelter a-top,” Binness said, deftly flipping another net wide on the sands.
A lad came running up with a rocking chair.
“No, no, furniture will come last,” F’lessan cried, waving the boy and the chair to one side. “Bring pots, pans, food, necessities,” he called as the scared boy dropped the chair and sprinted back to the largest cothold.
“That’s my old dam’s chair,” Binness said, pausing to prop his fists challengingly against the wide belt, which had knife sheaths as well as the telescope holster.
“Where is she?” F’lessan demanded.
“Coming. Lady Medda’s coming.” Binness pointed to the largest cothold. Two women, their hands making a seat, were hurrying out with an old woman, white braids bouncing. “Joint-ail but she runs us right well!”
“She can be the first to go.” If the woman managed the hold, then F’lessan would station her where she could do some good.
“She’ll show you where!” Binness shouted back, grinning maliciously before he grabbed a piece of line and tied it to the back of the rocking chair. “Where?” he asked F’lessan.
Shards! But it wasted time to argue with him. F’lessan swung his arm in Golanth’s direction. “Loop it on the third neck ridge. I’ll take her myself and the two carrying her.”
He ended up with far more draped on his bronze than the delighted Lady Medda, whose wrinkled face suggested nine or ten decades of living. She was in high spirits as she settled on Golanth’s back, shouting orders to those who jumped to obey.