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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 don’t print lies!” Tagetarl cried, loudly.

“But you print books. You use the Abomination’s vile methods. You distribute abominations!”

Captain Venabil, big fist raised, leaped toward the speaker who cowered away.

“Ha! Abomination, huh? These’re Abominators!” He turned, eyes flaring with disgust, toward the crowd. “Nothing but a pack of cowardly Abominators, sneaking around in the night to destroy what they haven’t the wit to appreciate.”

“We must stop the lies. We must keep Pern pure!” cried a woman farther down the line of captives. “We have to keep Pern free of abominations.”

“Of all the daft ideas!” Captain Venabil’s contempt was echoed vociferously by many of the onlookers. “Pern needs all the help it can get right now!”

“Where would we’ve been if Aivas hadn’t warned us of the Fireball Flood?” a man in the crowd demanded loud enough to be heard, waving his fist at the captives. “Captain’s got the right idea. Drown ’em!”

Shouts of “drown ’em” quickly became a chant, rising in ominous volume!

“Back in the net with them! Take the school back to the sea.” “That’d pollute our harbor!”

Ruth bugled loud enough to deafen those in the court. Outside, Lioth answered him and a muttering silence returned to those in the Hall court.

“You are Abominators?” Jaxom said in an oddly controlled voice. His eyes were on one of the taller captives who stared unseeingly ahead of him.

“We are!” the woman cried defiantly, just as the wineman shouted, “We admit nothing!”

“I think in this case,” Captain Venabil said in a wry tone that carried to the edges of the crowd, “I’ll believe the female.”

“They’re all together, ain’t they?” asked the fist-waver. “All pulling the doors down, trying to fire the sheds.”

“Yes, firing the sheds.” A thin, stoop-shouldered man pushed through the crowd, waving wildly at the sheds and the back of the court. “You could’ve burned my hold, too! I’m Colmin, Journeyman weaver, and all my winter work’s in the loft back there. I use only traditional patterns and you could have ruined me! Ruined me!”

“We don’t like arsonists in Wide Bay neither,” a woman shouted, cupping her hands to her mouth to be sure she was heard. “It’s your say, Harpers! It’s your Hall they attacked.”

“Known Abominators require different handling,” Pinch cried and turned to face Jaxom and N’ton. “Or at least being isolated,” he added in a low voice.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” Captain Venabil said and then frowned. “What d’you mean, Harper Mekelroy?”

The onlookers hushed to listen for Pinch’s answer.

“In offenses caused by those admitting to be Abominators, the Council recommends exile!”

It took another blast from Ruth and Lioth to still the clamor that was raised at that announcement.