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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?

“Benden marks are, to be sure, the best. Almost as good as Harper Hall.”

F’lessan passed over the three marks just as the other wineman arrived with the skin, a large one.

“Good Turnover,” Geger said, tipping a salute to F’lessan and a wink at Tai.

“Well,” F’lessan commented, feeling the skin, “it’s properly cold.” He unplugged the small end, gesturing for Tai to supply glasses from those on the table. He filled both deftly, restored the plug, and laid the skin under the table. “Safe skies!” he said in the traditional toast. Quickly she touched her glass to his.

“I think it is a ’30,” he added after a judicious sip. He grinned broadly. “You know, three marks isn’t that bad for a vintage Benden white.”

His remark caught her taking her first sip and she nearly choked on it. Three marks would have been out of her reach even at a Turnover celebration when everyone tended to spend freely. She hadn’t brought much with her; once she’d completed the declinations that Erragon wanted, she hadn’t expected to do more than get a quick meal here—and maybe listen to the Harpers awhile—before returning with Zaranth to her weyr down by Monaco Bay. She didn’t have a great many marks in any event, though like many other green riders she could be hired to deliver small packages and letters almost anywhere in Southern, when she wasn’t involved in Weyr duties or researching for Master Wansor at Cove Hold.

“Thank you, bronze rider,” she said.

“I’m F’lessan, Tai,” he replied with gentle chiding and a smile lurking in his eyes.

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“Let’s eat,” he suggested, taking his belt knife from its sheath. “I think from the smell of it the Landing cooks have used their special sauce. What more can one ask for on a Turnover night?”

Tai wouldn’t have asked for this much, she mused as she picked up a clean fork and started on the roast tubers, her favorite.

The wine was the best she’d ever tasted and so was the food.

“How’s the hand?” F’lessan asked after they’d eaten in hungry silence for a few minutes.

“My hand?” Tai looked down at it. “Oh, truly nothing now. My thanks again. And I usually do keep numbweed handy. I just didn’t … today.” In truth she had a big jar among the supplies in her weyr, but she did not have one small enough to fit in her belt pouch.

“How’d you do it?”