BooksBarbecue
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?

“That’s what we must discover,” Pinch said, stepping forward and nodding courteously to the Lord Holder and the Weyrleader. “I may have acted hastily but I did hear that the Printer Hall might be vulnerable. So, since it is such a valuable asset to Pern, north and south, I thought to prevent any untoward impairment of its facilities. Had a—beauty—of a message yesterday.”

Tagetarl saw Jaxom and N’ton exchange glances but, Harper though he was, he could not read more than an odd regret on N’ton’s face and a sadness in Jaxom’s.

“There’s no question harm was meant?” N’ton asked Pinch who shook his head.

“Three sent in over the roofs,” and Pinch pointed, raising his voice to make himself heard over the tumult in the court, “to open the main gate, torches set to fire the paper stores, hauling the Printer Hall doors off their hinges.”

“But the gates weren’t opened,” N’ton said.

“Not for lack of trying,” Pinch said.

“One broke the glass and the door to the hold and Rosheen flattened him with her iron skillet,” Tagetarl said. His arm still felt the repercussion.

“And there’s the matter of the drugged wine, too,” Pinch added.

“Drugged wine?” Jaxom repeated.

“So you netted those entering the Hall?” N’ton asked.

“Only after they’d battered down the doors,” Pinch replied, eyes wide with injured innocence.

“Hey, the fire-lizards are having all the fun!” someone shouted from the crowd ranged about the entrance of the Print Hall.

Since it was obvious that the fire-lizards were also preventing the crowd getting near enough to have a go at the captives, Jaxom turned to Ruth, patting the white shoulder. “Do dismiss them, Ruth, with our thanks. They’ve performed admirably.”

Ruth raised his head and emitted an unusual warble. Not only did it mute the noise of the crowd but also the fire-lizards departed in one final dramatic swoop, low enough to make the tallest onlookers duck. Gesturing to his friends to accompany him, Jaxom strode forward and the crowd parted to allow them to reach the battered doors on the cobbles, conversations dying down now that someone was taking charge.

“Lower the net!” Jaxom ordered and four of Pinch’s assistants jumped to obey.

“Belay that!” cried a voice from the right-hand side of the crowd and a big man, capped as a fisherman and showing a Master’s knot, stood apart. “If you leave ’em in the net, Lord Jaxom, we can just sling the whole lot of ’em aft of my ship and I’ll tow ’em out to the deep water! Save a lot of trouble!”

The crowd roared its approval of such rough justice.

“Ah, but, Captain, I am here,” Jaxom said and his expression was one of rueful regret, “and so is Weyrleader N’ton and the MasterPrinter. So we are obliged to follow established procedures.”