Sky Dragons Dragonriders of Pern Read online

  Between again and back, high, high over the eastern edge of the Nerat peninsula—still lush and green even in midwinter.

  Find it! Xhinna urged her blue as she strained her eyes for the telltale smudge of Thread. Her teeth were chattering, and she shivered from the multiple trips between and multiple returns to the high cold, airless spaces way above where dragons normally flew and flamed.

  And then she saw it—a line of what looked like large pebbles or stones but dirtier. Tazith rumbled in agreement and turned his head for more firestone. Even as the small balls started to glow and spread into the long, thin wisps that were Thread, she and Tazith were diving on it, flaming. Tell the others!

  They come, Tazith said. A moment later, he and Xhinna were surprised when he opened his huge jaws and no flame burst forth. Warm, the blue said to her.

  Xhinna blinked in surprise. Her teeth weren’t chattering anymore. She was warm, as if she were resting in a hot tub after a long day’s flying and flaming. Idly she wondered why the air was so warm. And why didn’t Tazith’s flame burst around the Thread?

  It was getting dark, too. The colors were going gray and darkness was closing around from behind her. But she was warm, Tazith was warm. It was nice being warm.

  And then the darkness closed in.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The Kiss of Hope

  Someone was crying. They’d been crying a long time because they were in that awful, horrible heaving stage where they could barely breathe and when they did, all they could do was sob once more.

  It was cold. The ground was cold. She was freezing.

  Someone was kissing her.

  “Breathe!” she heard someone beg. “Breathe, please breathe!”

  Whoever was kissing her was doing a poor job. Xhinna tried to respond and then—

  “Ewwww! Yuk!” another voice cried and the lips were gone as the voice spat, “Ptah, yuk! She tried to kiss me!”

  “Move away!” another voice, the one that had ordered her to breathe, said irritably, and then there were lips on hers once more, lips that she knew, and suddenly Xhinna realized that she was alive, lying on cold, hard stone, and that the first kisser had been—

  “Lift me up,” she whispered as she broke the kiss and met Taria’s tear-stained eyes. She reached for and found Taria’s hand and Taria clenched it tightly. She saw resistance rise in Taria’s eyes, but shook her head just enough to communicate her need. The green rider nodded just as lightly, then tightened her grip on Xhinna’s arm and helped her to sit up, moving quickly to come around behind her, propping her back up with her knees.

  “Ptah, ptui, ptui!” Jepara said, still trying disgustedly to remove the last vestiges of her life-giving kiss from her lips. She eyed Xhinna and said darkly, “Don’t ever expect me to do that again!”

  Xhinna heard a gasp and looked up to see Jirana launching herself at her.

  “You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive!” Jirana cried at the top of her lungs, grabbing Xhinna tightly around the middle and kissing her madly with relief. Jirana pulled back, her face crumpling as she said, “You were blue, you were dead. I saw it.”

  “And now you’ve seen me breathing the life back into her,” Jepara said sourly. She looked down at Xhinna and ordered, “Don’t ever make me have to do that again!”

  “Thread?” Xhinna asked, finding it hard to breathe and even harder to speak.

  Jirana shook her head in exasperation, then threw herself back to her feet and started dancing around once more, crying, “She’s alive, she’s alive, she’s alive!”

  “The Thread’s gone,” Taria said. “The rest of the wing managed it.”

  “We caught you just after Mirressa,” J’keran’s deep voice said from the distance.

  “Mirressa?”

  “She’s well,” Lorana said, moving into Xhinna’s line of vision and smiling down at her. “She recovered quickly once we got her on the ground.”

  “Which we’d no sooner done than Jirana was screaming about you and how you were dead—” R’ney called from the distance. Xhinna guessed that he was tending to Mirressa.

  “And you were,” Jirana said, moving back into view, no longer dancing. She knelt down before Xhinna and grabbed her hand. “I saw it. You were dead.”

  “Well, not anymore,” Jepara said briskly, moving to stand behind the younger queen rider. “And from now on, a little more telling and a little less dwelling, young lady!”

  Jirana leaned her head back to rest against Jepara’s stomach and met the eyes of the Weyrwoman looking sternly down at her.

  “But I can’t!” Jirana complained. She lowered her head and looked to Xhinna, then Lorana. “I can’t break time.”

  “No,” Jepara said, “but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer in silence.” The gold rider dropped down behind Jirana and wrapped her arms around her, leaning in close but speaking clearly enough for everyone to hear. “A burden shared is a burden lessened.”

  “Are you part of Sky?” Taria chimed in. Jirana looked her way and nodded once, firmly. “Then you talk to us.”

  “But—”

  “We’ll keep your secrets, little one,” Xhinna said, annoyed that her voice was still so wispy. Jirana’s eyes strayed to hers. A spark of understanding passed between them, and Xhinna’s lips quirked. She raised a finger and beckoned the trader girl close enough to whisper, “If it worries you, try me first.”

  EPILOGUE

  Eight Months Later

  Xhinna looked down at the sight arrayed below her. The sky was full of dragons. All six Western Weyrs had gathered here at Sky Weyr for the last time.

  A white line on the sleeve of her wher-hide jacket distracted her and she moved her arm so she could, once again, count the twenty white lines—well, only ten on that arm; there were another ten on the other sleeve—that each marked a Fall flown by her and the Sky dragons.

  Twenty Falls. Two casualties. And no burrows.

  Cliova had joined Danirry in the Sky Weyr roll of honor after she and her green Bemorth had succumbed to the altitude sickness at a moment when the catchers had been busy elsewhere. Like Danirry before her, tragically, her absence had not been noted until it was too late. Her death had caused Xhinna to change her tactics—much to her personal annoyance even though to the relief of others—and now the wingleaders all flew with the catcher dragons, maintaining constant alert. Since then there had been no other losses.

  Cliova’s Bemorth had had a clutch on the sands, and her eighteen hatchlings were among the ninety-six others greeted fervently at the last Hatching of Sky Weyr.

  The hatchlings and their weyrlings were all gone now, having been transported to Igen Weyr for eventual distribution to their “proper” Weyrs.

  Even so, Xhinna was in the presence of over two thousand dragons, more than half of whom were ready and able, and blooded in the fight against Thread.

  Jirana says: “You did it,” Tazith relayed to her.

  Xhinna shook her head firmly. She sought out and found the queen and her rider, nestled proudly in the great wings of the queen dragons that were arrayed below her.

  Tell her, WE did it.

  K’dan says for you to give the signal, Tazith relayed as he bugled triumphantly.

  Me?

  Lorana has given us the image, the blue dragon added, sensing the growing rebellion in his rider. Are we ready?

  Behind her, Seban chuckled, having observed her and been the recipient of her dragon’s thoughts. “He’s twitting you and he’s right,” the ex-dragonrider shouted in her ear. He waved a hand down at the thousands of dragons below them. “It’s your right—you’ve earned it, dragonrider.”

  Xhinna groaned, then joined in the ex-dragonrider’s bellow of laughter.

  You’d think, Xhinna mused, that by now I’d learn to give in gracefully.

  Never, Tazith replied.

  Very well, Xhinna said, taking one last, long, wistful look at the broom trees and the Weyr that had given them life. Let’s go.
r />   As one, on her command, the dragons of the Western Isle blinked out between to return, triumphant, to the fight to save Pern.

  CHRONOLOGY OF THE SECOND INTERVAL/THIRD PASS

  DATE

  (AL) EVENT BOOK

  492.4 Marriage: Terregar and Silstrar Dragon’s Kin

  493.10 Kisk Hatches Dragons’ Kin

  494.1 Kindan to Harper Hall Dragon’s Kin

  495.8 C’tov Impresses Sereth Dragon’s Fire

  496.8 Plague Starts Dragonharper

  497.5 Plague Ends Dragonharper

  498.7.2 Fort Weyr riders arrive back in time at Igen Weyr Dragonsblood, Dragonheart

  501.3.18 Fort Weyr riders return from Igen Weyr Dragonheart

  507.11.17 Fiona Impresses Talenth Dragonheart

  507.12.20 Lorana Impresses Arith Dragonsblood

  508.1.7 Start of Third Pass Dragonsblood, Dragonheart

  508.1.19 Arith goes between Dragonsblood, Dragonheart

  508.1.27 Fort Weyr riders time it back ten Turns to Igen Weyr Dragonsblood, Dragonheart

  508.2.2 Fort Weyr riders return from Igen Weyr Dragonsblood, Dragonheart

  508.2.8 Telgar Weyr jumps to nowhere Fiona, T’mar, H’nez to Telgar Weyr Kindan, Fiona to Telgar Weyr Dragongirl

  On Pernese time: The Pernese date their time from their arrival on Pern, referring to each Turn as “After Landing” (AL).

  The Pernese calendar is composed of 13 months, each of 28 days (four weeks, or sevendays) with a special “Turnover” day at the end of each Turn for a total of 365 days.

  For Janis Ian

  By Todd McCaffrey

  Published by Ballantine Books

  DRAGONSBLOOD

  DRAGONHEART

  DRAGONGIRL

  By Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

  DRAGON’S KIN

  DRAGON’S FIRE

  DRAGON HARPER

  DRAGON’S TIME

  SKY DRAGONS

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  ANNE MCCAFFREY wrote the very first Pern novel, Dragonflight, more than forty years ago. She received a plethora of awards, including the Grand Master Nebula Award, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

  She passed away in November 2011, leaving an immense following of dedicated fans worldwide.

  TODD MCCAFFREY is Anne McCaffrey’s middle child and has written three solo books on Pern as well as five collaborations with his mother, of which Sky Dragons is the last.

  He and his sister, Georgeanne Kennedy, are the only two people designated by Anne McCaffrey to write in the Pern universe.

  pernhome.com

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  B OOK O NE : S KY W EYR

  ONE: A Dark Dream in Blue

  TWO : Flight to the Past

  THREE: A Leap to Screams

  FOUR: The Growl of a Mother

  FIVE: By Hearts Sundered

  SIX: A Knot on the Shoulder

  SEVEN: A Deed Redone

  EIGHT: A Journey Through Twilight

  NINE: A Knife in the Dark

  TEN: An Easy Problem

  ELEVEN: A Cry in the Silence

  TWELVE: Stretching Bonds

  THIRTEEN: Attack from Beneath

  FOURTEEN: A Body Torn

  FIFTEEN: A Greeting Foretold

  B OOK T WO : T HE S KY D RAGONS

  SIXTEEN: The Battle of Friends

  SEVENTEEN: Journey to Starlight

  EIGHTEEN: A Fall Through Nothing

  NINETEEN: A Flame in the Void

  TWENTY: Farewell to a Dreamer

  TWENTY-ONE: Feast for the Fallen

  TWENTY-TWO: The Kiss of Hope

  EPILOGUE: Eight Months Later

  Chronology of the Second Interval/Third Pass

  Dedication

  Other Books by This Author

  About the Authors