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Back The Skies of Pern
Chapters (64)
  1. Other titles by Anne McCaffreyPublished by Ballantine Books:
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  7. INTRODUCTION
  8. PROLOGUE
  9. At a Gather—6.15.30
  10. Part 1
  11. Turnover at Landing—1.1.31 Present Pass Aivas—Aivas Adjusted Turn 2553
  12. Benden Weyr—1.1.31
  13. Southern Hold—1.1.31
  14. Healer Hall—1.1.31
  15. Back at Landing—1.2.31
  16. Fort Hold—late night—1.1.31
  17. Fort Hold Runner Station—1.2.31
  18. Keroon Printer Hall—1.3.31
  19. Benden Weyr—midday—1.3.31
  20. Monaco Bay Weyr—five days later—1.8.31
  21. Part 2
  22. Ruatha Hold—local time 12:04 in the morning—1.9.31
  23. Telgar Weyr—local time 4:04 in the morning—1.9.31
  24. Benden Weyr—local time 6:04 in the morning—1.9.31
  25. Harper Hall—local time 1:00 in the morning—1.9.31
  26. Landing—local time 10:12 mid-morning—1.9.31
  27. In the Conference Room at Landing—1.9.31
  28. Monaco Weyr—10:22 in the morning—Timing it
  29. In the Conference Room at Landing—local time 1:10–1.9.31
  30. Sunrise Cliff Seahold—timed-back
  31. In the Conference Room—local time 2:12 at Landing—1.9.31
  32. Back at Landing—local time—3:40
  33. Harper Hall—5:00 in the morning, and Southern Hold—2:00 in the morning–1.9.31
  34. Landing—late afternoon—1.9.31
  35. Same time at Keroon Printer Hall—local time 11:15—1.9.31
  36. Later, on an unusually bright evening at Landing, Sunrise Cliff, and Honshu Hold—1.9.31
  37. Part 3
  38. Honshu—1.10.31
  39. Circle Runner Station—1.18.31
  40. Harper Hall
  41. Benden Weyr—
  42. Benini Hold—east Monaco and Honshu—1.20.31
  43. Harper Hall—1.28.31
  44. Honshu Hold—2.1.31
  45. Fort Hold—2.13.31
  46. Printer Hall at Wide Bay—same night
  47. Honshu Hold—2.9.31
  48. Night at Wide Bay—2.9.31
  49. Ruatha Hold—late evening—2.9.31
  50. Core Hold—two days before Council Meeting—2.26.31
  51. Part 4
  52. Honshu Weyrhold—2.26–27.31
  53. Council Meeting at Telgar Hold—3.1.31
  54. Honshu Weyrhold—3.01.31
  55. Interim at Benden and elsewhere
  56. Honshu Weyrhold—time passing slowly
  57. Landing—3.21.31
  58. Honshu Weyrhold—3.21.31
  59. Southern Hold—3.23.31
  60. Honshu Weyrhold—3.27.31
  61. Benden Weyr—3.27.31
  62. Cove Hold—same day, same approximate time
  63. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  64. What’s next onyour reading list?

“I didn’t know it was supposed to be—like that!” she admitted softly and she turned her head, embarrassed.

“My very dear green,” he said tenderly, stroking her face with his thumbs, feeling slightly superior because he was no stranger to the “that.” “It is assuredly the most intense emotional and sexual experience. We know exactly what our dragons are feeling, and they mirror ours. It can be stunning enough when humans love, but magnified by our emotional bond with our dragons …” He spread his hands, unable to quantify it and smiled tenderly at her. “Well, it—” he hesitated, “should have happened to you before, Tai.” He couldn’t help making fists and driving them into the rumpled furs of the bed. “I’m appalled and concerned that you were so abused. That’s not the way dragonriders should behave even when the dragon’s in control. I’m …”

“Sssh,” she said, reaching up to lay her palm against his cheek, her face calm, the hint of a smile on her kiss-roughened lips.

He wished he could see her eyes but there was so little light filtering through from the hall.

“I’m glad it was you I could choose,” she said.

“I—” He started to protest, stunned that, despite his best efforts, she had somehow sensed his wile.

“I know me well enough, F’lessan,” she said, putting both hands on his face now. “I am so very grateful to you.”

“Gratitude in a snake’s arse,” he said, incensed. He wrapped his arms around her, wanting very much to take her again, and with human lust. “It’s not bloody gratitude I want from you, my dear Tai!” He loosened his hold when he felt her resist with a hint of the panic she had shown on the terrace. He made his body relax beside hers, looked down into her eyes, wishing he could see the expression in them, the color they were right now. “I liked you when we first met. In the Archives. I know you knew who I was, that Mirrim had probably prejudiced you against me. Had probably said I was—reckless. I’m not. I’m a good Wingleader. Riders trust me. So do their dragons. I want you to choose me, of your own free will, Tai. I’d like to—choose you, too, as a person I want to know better, not just because your green went into heat and Golanth was the only dragon available.”

She looked up at him for a long time and then, tentatively, curled one hand around his bare shoulder.

“How did you manage it?” Her voice was low, even.

“How did I manage—?” His voice broke in surprise. She meant Zaranth challenging Golanth. “Believe me, it is not something even I could manage!” A laugh burst from him. “Your dragon wanting mine!”

And then he wondered. Dragons could be very cunning.