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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Pinch gave a bark of laughter. “Dragons can move fast but not as fast as a meteorite. And meteorites are so hot when they hit the atmosphere that however hot dragon flame is, it couldn’t stop a meteorite—even if a dragon could match its speed.”
“I know, I know.” Sebell sighed gustily.
“Now—” Pinch rattled Serubil’s message. “Why don’t I do something useful, like go to Crom Minehold?”
“I’ve asked N’ton to have you conveyed. You’ve about time to get your sketch of that Abominator and change into riding gear.”
“Good. Bista loves going a-dragonback.” Pinch neatly folded Serubil’s message and put it in a thigh pocket. “I shan’t be long.”
“I hope not.”
He was back by late evening. This time he knocked discreetly at Sebell’s office door and entered, carrying a tray with a klah pot, cups, and a plate of sweet biscuits.
“I do not come empty-handed,” he said and strode to set the tray down on Sebell’s desk. He gave the piles of papers a quick appraisal: Sebell seemed to have made little headway with the stacks. “Did you do nothing today about all those petitions?”
“I put them in different piles. What’s your news?”
Pinch poured klah for them both before he made himself comfortable on the edge of the desk again.
“The prisoner did not have a scar on his face when he left. He lost the top joint of the first finger on his left hand in a mining accident. He had tried to escape before but was easily caught. The trackers were sure he couldn’t hear them coming. That’s one reason they delayed going after him.”
“When were those attempts made?”
Pinch consulted notes he had made in the margin of Serubil’s message. “In the first couple of Turns he was there—” His eyes widened and he pointed at the MasterHarper just as Sebell reached the same conclusion.
“So he got enough hearing back to try again!” They spoke in unison and then both grinned.
“And he waited for the right time—” Sebell said.
“What better time than when a meteorite has knocked out holes to escape through!” Pinch jumped to his feet again. “Right. The prison bathroom has partitions in its stalls so no one there remembers any scars on his arms.”
“And no name?”
“They called him Glass because of the pipe calluses.”
“So he could be Norist’s journeyman?” Sebell asked.
“That’s likely.”
“So he’d have plenty of reason to hate Aivas. Norist thought of Aivas as the Abomination. There’s enough circumstantial evidence to believe that the escaped prisoner is the new leader.”
“My man, Fifth,” Pinch put in. With a sigh, he sat back down on the edge of the desk. “Now all we have to do is find him and see if he can hear our questions clearly enough to answer them.”