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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?

A dragon must be in the air to “fly” his mate. He could not suppress his anguish at that realization. Hard enough to lose his right to lead, but to lose the ecstasy, too?

It took him a moment to realize that Tai was shaking him, her green eyes intense with denial.

“Nonsense,” he heard Tai say in a whisper so furious it stung his ears. “There’ll be a way. There’s been a way for everything else! Come.”

He grabbed her, pushing her against one of the thick stanchions at the base of the ramp.

“Did you know? Do they?” He meant his Weyrleaders. He gave her a shake when she didn’t answer.

“I thought,” and her words came out slowly, “that you realized someone would have to take over your wing—for a while.”

“It’s not just the wing …” He pushed her away from him. “I thought Honshu was my refuge. Now I realize it’s Golly’s prison!” He pointed to the beasthold and its widened doors. “He’ll have to be put in there whenever there’s Thread above. Not being able to fly drives a dragon crazy. We always assist an injured dragon to get far away until Thread has passed. But Golanth can’t even do that!”

“You don’t know that yet!” she said, whirling to stand in front of him. “We haven’t even tried to get him to the sea.”

“How in the name of the first Egg can we get him to the beach when he can’t even get in the air?”

“Because,” Lessa replied, walking in under the ramp, F’lar beside her, “we know how he can get into the air. Once he’s in the air, he can go between. Did you think Ramoth and Mnementh—and other dragons—had forgotten what they learned that day at Honshu?”

F’lessan stared at her. She was almost reproachful. To his amazement, his father was more amused than critical. He couldn’t quite grasp what they meant. His mind was tormented by the crushing revelations he had been too cowardly to admit to himself.

“The ramp is a good idea,” F’lar said. “That—” and he waved toward the beasthold, “makes a fine weyr. Nothing else.” His amber eyes held F’lessan’s. “Certainly not a prison in time of Thread. By the time the Nine Fall is over Honshu, we’ll have mastered lifting that bronze dragon of yours.”

“But how?”

“It takes control, you know,” Lessa said, walking up to her son and slipping her arm in his. “Which, I believe, your dragon was practicing the other morning.”

“How did you know that?” F’lessan asked, startled out of his morbid thoughts.