Dragonsdawn (48 page)
Authors: Anne McCaffrey
Is everyone here to see us?
Carenath asked shyly. The bronze turned his left wing so that Sean could reach a particularly wide score and sighed in audible relief as anesthetic cream was slathered on.
“I don’t know how we got so lucky,” Sean muttered to himself when he was certain that all Carenath’s injuries had been attended to. He looked around him, checking to see that all the other dragons had been treated. Sorka gave him a thumbs-up signal and grinned at him, her face smeared with blood and soot. He returned her sign with both fists. “Sheer fluke we got out of that with just sears and scores. We didn’t even know what we were doing. Blind luck!” His mind roiled with ways to avoid any sort of scoring and ideas for drills to improve how much Thread a single breath could char. Their fight had been, after all, only the first, brief skirmish in a long, long war.
“Hey, Sean, you need some, too,” one of the medics said pulling off his helmet to anoint his cheeks. “Got to get you looking spruce. The admiral’s waiting!”
As if her words were a cue, a murmurous silence fell over the plain. The riders converged together and moved forward to the foot of the ramp where Paul Benden, in full uniform of a fleet admiral, with Ongola and Ezra Keroon similarly attired flanking him, awaited the seventeen young heroes.
In step, the dragonriders walked forward, past people grinning foolishly in their pride. Sean recognized many faces: Pol and Bay looking about to burst with pride; Telgar, tears streaming down his cheeks, Ozzie and Cobber on either side of him; Cherry Duff upheld by two sons, her black eyes gleaming with joy. He caught sight of the Hanrahans, Mairi holding up his small son to see the pageantry. There was no sign of Governor Emily Boll, and Sean felt his heart contract. What Peter Chernoff had said was true, then. This moment would not be the same without her.
They reached, the ramp, and somehow the queen riders had dropped a step behind the others and Sean stood in the center. When they halted, he took a step forward and saluted. It seemed the correct thing to do. Admiral Benden, tears in his eyes, proudly returned the salute.
“Admiral Benden, sir,” said Sean, rider of bronze Carenath, “may I present the Dragonriders of Pern?”
THREADFALLS—TERRITORY COVERED
| FIRST dangerous FALL: | 4 | |
| | Starts over Jordan Province | |
| Hits | Monaco Bay | TZ14-TZ11 |
| | Landing | 22S-48S |
| | Starts over Jordan Province | |
| | Oslo Landing | |
| | Amsterdam | |
| | Bavaria | |
| | Milan | |
| | Tuareg Camp Site | |
| | ||
| SECOND FALL: | Double Hit 5 | TZ11-TZ8 |
| | Macedonia | 2N-30S |
| | Oversea until end | |
| | Hits Sadrid | |
| | ( Thessaly & Roma warned) | |
| | Second wave falls over unoccupied Bordeaux —unexpectedly | |
| | ||
| THIRD FALL: | Cathay Province: 6 | TZ11-TZ8 |
| | | 19A-49S |
| | Clips edge of Malay River | |
| | Mexico on Maori Lake—stops mid-lake | |
| | ||
| FOURTH FALL: | Double Fall: 7 | TZ42-TZ8 |
| | Araby to Barrier Range: observed | |
| | Sea at Equator TZ8-TZ5: observed | |
| | ||
| FIFTH FALL: | A Baddie: 8 | TZ8-5 |
| | | 20S-485 |
| | Macedonia —Dorado | |
| | Drake’s Lake | |
| | Yukon | |
| | Narrowly misses Suweto | |
| | Smack on Karachi Camp | |
| | ||
| SIXTH FALL: | Double Hit: 9. Ends just on edge of Kahrain | |
| | TZI3 at sea—observed | |
| | Hits Cathay, Maori Lake again TZ8-d.o. | |
| | ||
| SEVENTH FALL: | Double Hit: 10 | |
| | Jordan—hits TZ14-13. 30S- river | |
| | Hits Cardiff , southern edge of Landing | |
| | Calusa & Bordeaux TZ5-2, 20S-485 | |
| | Dorado—hits Seminole & just misses Ierne | |
| | ||
| EIGHTH FALL: | Double hit—11, just tip of Kahrain unoccupied end of Karachi Camp—mountains | |
| | Longwood area of Ierne | |
| | ||
| NINTH FALL: | Kahrain-Cathay—12 | TZ13-l0/ |
| | | 15S-44S |
| | Paradise River right in the center | |
| | ||
| TENTH FALL: | Double Hit—13 | TZ13-11.50 |
| | | TZ10-7 |
| | Kahrain & Delta | |
| | Killarney (unoccupied) | |
| | Boca River | |
| | ||
| ELEVENTH FALL: | 14—Sea and Cathay | TZ10-7 |
| | Just misses Malay River | |
| | Tips southeast edge of Thessaly | |
| | ||
| TWELFTH FALL | 15—Double | TZ10-7 |
| | Araby/Cathay | |
| | Just misses Maori Lake | |
| | Clips into Seminole East |
PROFOUND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could not have been written without the advice, assistance, and aid of Dr. Jack Cohen, D.Sc., lately Senior Lecturer of Reproductive Biology at Birmingham University, England, whose expertise and enthusiasm helped me
create
the dragons of Pern, and attendant botany/biology/ecology. Jack made fact out of myth, and science out of legend. I am not the only writer of his acquaintance who owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude.
I am also indebted to Harry Alm, Naval Engineer of New Orleans, Louisiana, for his configuration of the Thread Fall Patterns, based on only casual remarks in various of my books. To his wife, Marilyn, I owe the patient and correct transmission by Compuserve of this incredible technical data.
Anne McCaffrey
was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures. Before her success as a writer, she was involved in theater. She directed the American premiere of Carl Orff’s
Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus
, in which she also played a witch. Her first novel,
Restoree
, was written as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in science fiction novels in the 50s and early 60s. Ms. McCaffrey is best known, however, for her handling of broader themes and the worlds of her imagination, particularly in her tales of the Talents and the fourteen novels about the Dragonriders of Pern.
McCaffrey lives in a house of her own design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland. Visit the author online at
www.annemccaffrey.org.
Books by Anne McCaffrey
Decision at Doona
Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet Survivors
Get Off the Unicorn
The Lady
Pegasus in Flight
Restorree
The Ship Who Sang
To Ride Pegasus
Nimisha’s Ship
Pegasus in Space
THE CRYSTAL SINGER BOOKS
Crystal Singer
Killashandra
Crystal Line
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN
®
BOOKS
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Nerilka’s Story
Dragonsdawn
The Renegades of Pern
All the Weyrs of Pern
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Dolphins of Pern
Dragonseye
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:
Powers that Be
Power Lines
Power Play
With Jody Lynn Nye:
The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern
Edited by Anne McCaffrey:
Alchemy and Academe
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THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN is a trademark of Anne McCaffrey. Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.
A Del Rey Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 1988 by Anne McCaffrey
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Del Rey and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-47806
eISBN: 978-0-345-45398-3
v3.0
