The White Dragon Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  1 At Ruatha Hold, Present Pass, 12th Turn

  2 Benden Weyr, Present Pass, 13th Turn

  3 Morning at Ruatha Hold, and Smithcrafthall at Telgar Hold, Present Pass, 15.5.9

  4 Ruatha Hold, Fidello’s Hold, and Various Points Between, 15.5.10-15.5.16

  5 Morning in Harpercraft Hall, Fort Hold, Afternoon in Benden Weyr, Late Afternoon in Harpercraft Hall, 15.5.26

  6 Ruatha Hold and Southern Hold, 15.5.27-15.6.2

  7 Morning at Ruatha Hold, 15.6.2

  8 Ruatha Hold, Fort Weyr, Fidello’s Hold, 15.6.3-15.6.17

  9 Early Summer, Harpercraft Hall and Ruatha Hold, 15.7.3

  10 From Harpercraft Hall to the Southern Continent, Evening at Benden Weyr, 15.7.4

  11 Late Morning at Benden Weyr, Early Morning at Harpercraft Hall, Midday at Fidello’s Hold, 15.7.5

  12 Ruatha Hold, Fidello’s Hold, Threadfall, 15.7.6

  13 A Cove in the Southern Continent, 15.7.7-15.8.7

  14 Early Morning at Harpercraft Hall, Midmorning at Ista Weyr, Midafternoon at Jaxom’s Cove, 15.8.28

  15 Evening at Jaxom’s Cove and Late Evening at Ista Weyr, 15.8.28

  16 At the Cove Hold, 15.8.28-15.9.7

  17 Fort Hold, Benden Weyr, at Cove Hold, and at Sea aboard the Dawn Sister, 15.10.1-15.10.2

  18 At the Cove Hold the Day of Master Robinton’s Arrival, 15.10.14

  19 Morning at the Cove Hold, Star-gazing in Late Evening, Next Morning, Discovery at the Mountain, 15.10.15-15.10.16

  20 At the Mountain and at Ruatha Hold, 15.10.18-15.10.20

  21 Next Day at the Mountain, Cove Hold, and the Southern Hatching Ground, 15.10.21

  Afterword

  Dragondex

  About the Author

  Books by Anne McCaffrey

  To learn more about other great ebook titles from Ballantine . . .

  Copyright

  This book is irreverently dedicated

  to my brothers

  Hugh and Kevin

  for sibling rivalries, and

  the mature affections and loyalties that

  develop from early brawling!

  Prologue

  RUKBAT, IN THE Sagittarian Sector, was a golden G-type star. It had five planets, two asteroid belts and a stray planet that it had attracted and held in recent millennia. When men first settled on Rukbat’s third world and called it Pern, they had taken little notice of the strange planet swinging around its adopted primary in a wildly erratic elliptical orbit. For two generations, the colonists gave the bright Red Star little thought—until the path of the wanderer brought it close to its stepsister at perihelion. When such aspects were harmonious and not distorted by conjunctions with other planets in the system, the indigenous life form of the wandering planet sought to bridge the space gap between its home and the more temperate and hospitable planet. At these times, silver Threads dropped through Pern’s skies, destroying anything they touched. The initial losses the colonists suffered were staggering. As a result, during the subsequent struggle to survive and combat this menace, Pern’s tenuous contact with the mother planet was broken.

  To control the incursions of the dreadful Threads—for the Pernese had cannibalized their transport ships early on and abandoned such technological sophistication as was irrelevant to this pastoral planet—the more resourceful men embarked on a long-term plan. The first phase involved breeding a highly specialized variety of a life form indigenous to their new world. Men and women with high empathy ratings and some innate telepathic ability were trained to use and preserve these unusual animals. These dragons—named for the mythical Terran beast they resembled—had two valuable characteristics: they could get from one place to another instantaneously and, after chewing a phosphine-bearing rock, they would emit a flaming gas. Because the dragons could fly, they were able to char Thread in midair, and then escape from its ravages.

  It took generations to develop to the fullest the potential of these dragons. The second phase of the proposed defense against the deadly incursions would take even longer. For Thread, a space-traveling mycorrhizoid spore, with mindless voracity devoured all organic matter and, once grounded, burrowed and proliferated with terrifying speed. So a symbiote of the same strain was developed to counter this parasite, and the resulting grub was introduced into the soil of the southern continent. The original plan was that the dragons would be a visible protection, charring Thread while it was still skyborne and protecting the dwellings and the livestock of the colonists. The grub-symbiote would protect vegetation by devouring any Thread that managed to evade the dragons’ fire.

  The originators of the two-stage defense did not allow for change or for hard geological fact. The southern continent, overtly more attractive than the harsher northern land, proved unstable and the entire colony was eventually forced to move north to seek refuge from the Threads in the natural caves on the continental shield rock of the north.

  The original Fort, constructed in the eastern face of the Great West Mountain Range, soon grew too small to hold the colonists. Another settlement was started slightly to the north, alongside a great lake conveniently formed near a cave-filled cliff. But Ruatha Hold, as the settlement was called, became overcrowded within a few generations.

  Since the Red Star rose in the east, the people of Pern decided to establish a holding in the eastern mountains, provided a suitable cavesite could be found. Only solid rock and metal, both of which were in distressingly short supply on Pern, were impervious to the burning score of Thread.

  The winged, tailed, fire-breathing dragons had by then been bred to a size that required more spacious accommodations than the cliffside holds could provide. But ancient cave-pocked cones of extinct volcanoes, one high above the first Fort, the other in the Benden mountains, proved to be adequate and required only a few improvements to be made habitable. However, such projects took the last of the fuel for the great stonecutters, which had been programed only for regular mining operations, not for wholesale cliff excavations. Subsequent holds and weyrs had to be hand-hewn.

  The dragons and their riders in their high places and the people in their cave holds went about their separate tasks, and each developed habits that became custom, which solidified into tradition as incontrovertible as law.

  Then came an interval of two hundred Turns of the planet Pern around its primary—when the Red Star was at the other end of its erratic orbit, a frozen, lonely captive. No Thread fell on Pern. The inhabitants erased the depredations of Thread and grew crops, planted orchards from precious seed brought with them, thought of reforestry for the slopes denuded by Thread. They even managed to forget that they had once been in grave danger of extinction. Then the Threads fell again when the wandering planet returned for another orbit around Pern, bringing fifty years of attack from the skies. The Pernese once again thanked their ancestors, now many generations removed, for providing the dragons who seared the dropping Thread midair with their fiery breath.

  Dragonkind, too, had prospered during that interval and had settled in four other locations, following the master plan of interim defense.

  The significance of the southern hemisphere—and of the grub—had been lost in the immediate struggle to establish new settlements. Recollections of Earth receded further from Pernese history with each successive generation until memory of their origins degenerated into legend or myth and passed into oblivion.

  By the Third Pass of the Red Star, a complicated socio-political-economic structure had been developed to deal with this recurrent evil. The six Weyrs, as the old volcanic habitations of the dragonfolk were called, pledged themselves to protect Pern, each Weyr having a geographi
cal section of the northern continent literally under its wing. The rest of the population agreed to tithe to support the Weyrs since these fighters, these dragonmen, did not have arable land in their volcanic homes. They could not afford to take time away from nurturing their dragons to learn other trades during peacetime, nor could they take time away from protecting the planet during Passes.

  Settlements, called Holds, developed wherever natural caves were found—some, of course, more extensive or strategically placed than others. It took a strong man to hold frantic, terrified people in control during Thread attacks; it took wise administration to conserve victuals when nothing could be safely grown, and it took extraordinary measures to control population and keep it productive and healthy until such time as the menace passed.

  Men with special skills in metalworking, weaving, animal husbandry, farming, fishing, mining formed Crafthalls in each large Hold and looked to one Mastercrafthall where the precepts of their craft were taught and craft skills were preserved and guarded from one generation to another. One Lord Holder could not deny the products of the Crafthall situated in his Hold to others, since the Crafts were deemed independent of a Hold affiliation. Each Craftmaster of a hall owed allegiance to the Master of that particular craft—an elected office based on proficiency in that craft and administrative ability. The Mastercraftsman was responsible for the output of his halls and the distribution, fair and unprejudiced, of all craft products on a planetary rather than parochial basis.

  Certain rights and privileges accrued to different leaders of Holds and Masters of Crafts and, naturally, to the dragonriders whom all Pern looked to for protection during the Threadfalls.

  On occasion, the conjunction of Rukbat’s five natural planets would prevent the Red Star from passing close enough to Pern to drop its fearful spores. To the Pernese these were Long Intervals. During one such Interval, the grateful people prospered and multiplied, spreading out across the land, carving more holds out of solid rock, just in case Thread returned. But they became so busy with their daily pursuits that they preferred to think that the Red Star had indeed passed beyond any danger to them.

  No one realized that only a few dragons remained to take to the skies and that only one Weyr of dragonriders was left on Pern. Since the Red Star wasn’t due to return for a long, long while, if ever, why worry? Within five generations, the descendants of the heroic dragonmen fell into disfavor; the legends of past braveries and the very reason for their existence fell into disrepute.

  Volume One of the dragonriders of pern: dragonflight begins when the Red Star, obeying natural forces, began to spin closer to Pern, winking with a baleful red eye on its ancient victim. One man, F’lar, rider of the bronze dragon Mnementh, believed that the ancient tales had truth in them. His half-brother, F’nor, rider of brown Canth, listened to his arguments and believed in them. When the last golden egg of a dying queen dragon lay hardening on the Benden Weyr Hatching Ground, F’lar and F’nor saw an opportunity to gain control of the Weyr. Searching for a strong-minded woman to ride the soon-to-be-hatched queen, F’lar and F’nor discovered Lessa, the only surviving member of the proud Bloodline of Ruatha Hold. She Impressed young Ramoth, the new queen, and became Weyrwoman of Benden. Then F’lar’s bronze Mnementh flew the young queen in her first mating, and F’lar became Weyrleader of Pern’s remaining dragonriders.

  The three—Lessa, F’lar and F’nor—then forced the Lord Holders and Craftsmen to recognize their imminent danger and to prepare their almost defenseless planet against Thread. Obviously the scant two hundred dragons of Benden Weyr would not be able to defend the sprawling settlements. Six full Weyrs had been needed in the olden days when the settled land had been more limited in area than it now was. An abortive attempt was even made to develop the by-now almost forgotten southern continent. But that didn’t work.

  However, in learning to direct her queen dragon between one place and another, Lessa discovered that dragons could also move between one time and another. Risking her life as well as Pern’s only queen dragon, Lessa and Ramoth went back in time, four hundred Turns, before the mysterious disappearance of the other five Weyrs, and just after the last Pass of the Red Star had been completed. The five Weyrs of that ancient time, seeing only the decline of their prestige and bored with inactivity after a lifetime of exciting combat, agreed to help Lessa’s Weyr. These people from the past came forward to her time and saved Pern.

  Volume Two of the dragonriders of pern: dragonquest picks up the story seven Turns later, when the initial gratitude and relief of Holds and Crafts had faded and soured. The Oldtimers themselves did not like the Pern of the future in which they were now living. Four hundred Turns had brought too many subtle changes. The Oldtimers, used to a more subservient and grateful population, found themselves at odds with the Lord Holders and the Crafthalls—and especially with Benden Weyr and its liberal leaders.

  Tensions between the two factions came to a head in a petty quarrel involving F’nor and an Oldtimer Fort dragonrider. F’nor was sent off to the newly resettled southern continent to recover from his wound. Meanwhile F’lar confronted the Oldtimer, T’ron of Fort Weyr, in a meeting of all but two Weyrleaders. Little was decided at the meeting but it became apparent that the Oldtimers were not taking as much responsibility for their duties as they should. F’lar’s arguments caused D’ram, Ista’s Weyrleader, and G’narish of Igen Weyr, both Oldtimers, to take a good look at their contemporaries. Thread had begun to fall at unexpected times and the charts, carefully prepared by F’lar from the old Records, had somehow lost their validity. At that point Robinton, the Master Harper of Pern, and the Mastersmith, Fandarel, joined forces with the Benden leaders to try to cope with the new emergency. To help matters Fandarel developed a device that he hoped would provide communication among the Holds and Halls.

  Meanwhile in the Southern Weyr, F’nor was being nursed by a young queenrider, Brekke, when he accidentally discovered that fire-lizards, previously dismissed as mere legends or fantasies, actually existed and could also be Impressed at Hatching in the same way their genetic cousins, the dragons, were. Kylara, a passionate and disgruntled Weyrwoman of Southern, found a clutch of fire-lizard eggs which she took to Lord Meron of Nabol, one of the most troublesome of the Lord Holders.

  Summoned by F’nor’s message about the fire-lizards, F’lar headed for Southern Weyr where he observed that T’bor, the young Leader, was having trouble with his Weyrwoman, the sensuous Kylara. When Threadfall came to Southern, F’lar joined in the fight. Observing a very curious phenomenon in the dense vegetation, he discovered a curious and very active insect in the soil and brought samples back to the Masterherdsman, Sograny, an opinionated man to whom the grubs were anathema. F’lar, remembering what he had observed, took issue with the man and pursued his investigation of the grubs with the aid of F’nor, now returned to the Weyr, and N’ton, craftbred young rider of bronze Lioth.

  Soon Lord Lytol, guardian of the young Jaxom, the youth to whom Lessa had ceded her Bloodright to Ruatha Hold, visited Benden Weyr to discuss the tense situation with F’lar, Lessa, Robinton and Fandarel. He brought Jaxom with him as his ward was friendly with F’lessan, only son of F’lar and Lessa. While the adults were talking, the two boys sneaked into the unused passageways of Benden Weyr for a peek at Ramoth’s latest clutch of eggs in the Hatching Ground. The boys became frightened by the unexpected return of the queen and quickly lost their way in the dark corridors, inadvertently discovering some long-forgotten rooms. A search party found the boys unconscious and discovered musty rooms in which they found a variety of curious objects, including an instrument which enlarged small things that quickly became the Mastersmith’s special treasure. F’lar suggested that a discreet search be made of the older Holds and Weyrs to see if anything interesting should turn up to fill in the gaps of lost knowledge.

  Shortly thereafter Kylara and Lord Meron appeared at the wedding of Lord Asgenar and Telgar’s sister at Telgar Hold with fire-lizards on their a
rms, causing considerable commotion. Suddenly a dragonrider appeared, disrupting the wedding feast with the news that Thread was unaccountably falling at Igen. F’lar requested the help from the other Weyrleaders and T’ron found this an excuse to challenge the Benden Weyrleader to a duel from which F’lar, though wounded, emerged the victor and banished T’ron and any other Oldtimer who would not acknowledge that he was to be the overall Weyrleader. Lord Holders and Craftmasters alike supported F’lar. Oldtimer Weyrleaders, D’ram of Ista, G’narish of Igen and R’mart of Telgar, likewise stood by him. T’kul of High Reaches joined T’ron in exile with seventy other Oldtimers and Dragonfolk. F’lar, despite his wound, insisted on flying Thread at Igen, by going between time to the start of Threadfall.

  The former Southern dragonriders, ousted by T’ron, settled in the High Reaches Weyr which had been left in a shocking state. Brekke, unaware that her queen Wirenth was about to rise for her first mating, began to restore order to the Weyr while Kylara enjoyed herself with Lord Meron. Unfortunately Kylara’s queen Prideth, was also close to mating and when Wirenth rose, so did Prideth. A battle ensued between the two queens in which the other queens tried to separate the combatants. Canth desperately attempted to save Wirenth. But both queens were mortally wounded and went between, leaving Kylara a mindless idiot and Brekke hanging on the edge of sanity. Only F’nor’s love and Canth’s devotion and the constant companionship of the little fire-lizards kept her alive.

  Meanwhile, guided by the principles of the Benden device, Fandarel and Wansor constructed a powerful distance-viewer that made it possible to see both the cloud-swirled surface of the Red Star and something of the other planets in the system. Lessa, Robinton and the dissident Lord Meron among others, arrived at Fort Weyr, intent on testing the new far-viewer. But Meron insisted that now that the face of the Red Star could be seen, dragonmen somehow ought to be able to get there. So he attempted to send his little fire-lizard on the journey. The little creature not only disappeared in fright, but managed to frighten the other fire-lizards as well.