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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“Wait!” Putting up her hand to stay his attack, Tai grinned widely, her look almost mischievous.
The trundlebug parade marched relentlessly in its unswerving path, oblivious to what was in its way. Zaranth’s nose twitched but she didn’t open so much as a slit of one eye. The parade was abruptly at right angles to its original path, heading back into the scrubland.
“There!” Tai beamed at her dragon.
“She blew them away?” F’lessan exclaimed.
“No. She didn’t. They can only get so close to her and they go off in another direction, any direction so long as it is away from her.”
She reclaimed her spade from him and began to dig another hole. “There’re two spades, you know.”
“Yes, yes, of course, my dear green,” he said, making a play of diligence, going for the second one. Anything to keep her from noticing the brilliant green of the sleeping Zaranth, lounging so gracefully in the sun by the sleeping bronze. How long would Golanth continue to fake sleep? F’lessan wondered.
“Tai, a question,” he began, digging busily. “I was watching and Zaranth didn’t move. She only twitched her nose. How could she make a trundlebug detour doing that?”
Tai dabbed at a drop of sweat rolling down her nose and, picking up the next to last plant, removed the wrapping and dropped it in place.
“I don’t know. But, if they get close to her, they are suddenly perpendicular to the original line of progress. You know trundlebugs: they never deviate from their chosen path.”
“Amazing!” He blotted the sweat from his face, then unwrapped the last plant, placed it firmly in the ground, and tamped dirt around it. “That’s that. We’re supposed to water them now, aren’t we?”
Probably the first thing Benini had done after the flooding receded was to sink a new well and provide a long watering trough from which they could easily fill buckets for that last garden chore.
“Didn’t Benini say they’d rigged a shower over by the beast-hold?” he asked, when they had finished.
“Yes, with a big enough cistern above to wash all of them,” she said, looking eagerly around to point to the freshly painted enclosure. “Or so his spouse said. We’ll get clean much quicker showering than having to wash in a bucket,” she added, dropping hers on the shadowed side of the well.
“Leave enough warm water for me,” he said, waving her to go first. “I’ll return the tools.” He gathered them up and started for the shed, calling after her. “I plan to hunt Golanth this afternoon at Honshu. How’s Zaranth’s appetite?” Well, he thought privately, “appetite” was one word for it.
Tai cast a look over her shoulder at her sleeping dragon. “She isn’t the least bit off-color.”