Dragon’s Time: Dragonriders of Pern Read online

  By Todd McCaffrey

  Published by Ballantine Books

  DRAGONGIRL

  DRAGONSBLOOD

  DRAGONHEART

  By Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

  DRAGON’S KIN

  DRAGON’S FIRE

  DRAGON HARPER

  Nonfiction Works

  DRAGONHOLDER

  Dragon’s Time is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Copyright © 2011 by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  McCaffrey, Todd

  Dragon’s Time/Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-345-52641-0

  1. Dragons—Fiction. 2. Pern (Imaginary place)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3563.A25525D68 2010

  813′.54—dc22 2010014672

  www.delreybooks.com

  Jacket design: David Stevenson

  Jacket illustration: © Les Edwards

  v3.1

  For

  Eliza Oriana Johnson

  first granddaughter, first niece:

  gentle, loving, brave heart

  LETTER TO READERS

  Dear Readers,

  When Todd and I were casting about for ideas for our next collaboration, we tossed around working on my novel, After the Fall Is Over, together, but contractual obligations took that out of the running—and, I must confess, I still am a bit possessive when it comes to the futures of F’lar and Lessa. Still, I did talk over some of my ideas with Todd, and he sent me a long list of questions in response that proved thought-provoking, inspiring, and challenging.

  I had read and enjoyed his Dragonheart and Dragongirl, and the truth is, the excitement was catching. And so I said: “You know, Todd, how hard it is for me to share.… Maybe you could show me how?”

  Todd got the message and quickly agreed. And it’s been a lot of fun. Not only have I enjoyed helping Todd wrap up this very dramatic part of Pernese history, but my own creative juices have been flowing thick and furious: I’ve been writing up a storm on my own, too. I think that Dragon’s Time is one of our best, and we’re both eager to get started on the next one, Dragonrider. Already we know that Dragonrider will break new ground and old tradition; still, Todd’ll do most of the writing and I’ll do the tweaking and critiquing, just as before.

  And after that, who knows? He’s been so good about allowing me to take part in moving his characters around the playing board … maybe I’ll finally let him play with my characters!

  Ciao,

  Annie

  FOR READERS NEW TO PERN

  Thousands of years after man first developed interstellar travel, colonists from Earth, Tau Ceti III, and many other origins settled upon Pern, the third planet of the star Rukbat in the Sagittarius sector.

  They found Pern idyllic for their purposes: a pastoral world far off the standard trade routes and perfect for those recovering from the horrors of the Nathi Wars.

  Led by war hero Admiral Paul Benden, and Governor Emily Boll of war-torn Tau Ceti, the colonists quickly abandoned their star-traveling technology in favor of a simpler life. For eight years—“Turns” as they called them on Pern—the settlers spread and multiplied on Pern’s lush Southern Continent, unaware that a menace was fast approaching through space.

  The Red Star, as the colonists came to call it, was actually a wandering planetoid that had been captured by Rukbat millennia before. It had a highly elliptical, cometary orbit, passing through the fringes of the system’s Oort Cloud before hurtling back inward toward the warmth of the sun, a cycle that took two hundred and fifty Turns.

  For fifty of those Turns, the Red Star was visible in the night sky of Pern. Visible and deadly, for when the Red Star was close enough, as it was for those fifty long Turns, its indigenous lifeform could cross the void to Pern. Once these alien spores entered the tenuous upper atmosphere, they would thin out into long, narrow, streamer shapes and float down to the ground below, as seemingly harmless “Threads.”

  However, Thread was anything but harmless. Like all living things, Thread needed sustenance, and it ate voraciously of anything organic: wood or flesh, it was all the same to Thread.

  The first deadly Fall of Thread caught the colonists completely unawares. And, having abandoned their high-tech weaponry and tools as part of their idealistic move to Pern, they barely survived. In the aftermath, they came up with a desperate plan to design a shield against the recurrent threat: they used their knowledge of genetic engineering to modify fire-lizards—six-limbed, winged Pernese life-forms that had natural resources against Thread—into huge, intelligent, telepathic dragons. Able to instantaneously travel from one place to another—by going between—and to “breathe fire,” the dragons could intercept Thread and burn it out of existence before it could reach the ground. Telepathically linked to their riders from the moment of Hatching and thus able to work as fighting units in perfect tandem, these dragons formed the mainstay of the protection of Pern.

  The approach of the Red Star not only brought the mindless Thread but also caused the tectonically active Southern Continent to heave with volcanoes and earthquakes, causing the colonists to seek refuge on the smaller, stabler, though less temperate Northern Continent. In their haste to flee, they lost many important resources and, over time, much knowledge was forgotten.

  Huddled in one settlement, which they called Fort Hold, the colonists soon discovered themselves overcrowded, particularly with the growing dragon population. So the dragons moved into their own high mountain space, Fort Weyr. As time progressed and the population spread across Pern, more Holds were formed and more Weyrs were created by the dragonriders.

  The combined needs of the holders and the dragonriders resulted in a complex societal structure. Settlements called holds fell under the authoritarian jurisdiction of major Holds, each run by a Lord Holder, who could maintain control over terrified people and limited resources during the years of Threadfall. The Weyrs, under the leadership of a Weyrwoman—rider of the senior queen dragon—and a Weyrleader—rider of whichever male dragon flew the senior queen in a mating flight—were unable to both provide for themselves and protect the planet. They were forced to rely on tithes from the Holds to keep them provided with food and supplies.

  And so the two populations grew separate, distant, and sometimes intolerant of each other.

  The Red Star grew fainter, Thread stopped falling. Then, after a two-hundred-Turn “Interval,” it returned again to rain death and destruction from the skies for another fifty-Turn “Pass.” Again, Pern relied on fragile dragon wings and their staunch riders to keep it free of Thread. And, again, the Pass ended, and a second Interval began.

  At the beginning of the Third Pass, a new disaster struck—dragons started dying of an unknown disease. These deaths, added to the losses from fighting Thread, decimated the Weyrs. K’lior, Weyrleader of Fort Weyr, decided upon a desperate course of action and sent his injured dragons and riders ten Turns back in time to abandoned Igen Weyr where they might heal and return in time to fight the next Threadfall. Their desperate jump between time—led by young Fiona, rider of gold queen Talenth—proved fabulously successful. After spending three Turns living and growing in the past, they returned to Fort Weyr, recovered and
trained to fight, a mere three days after they’d left.

  Upon her return, Fiona discovered that while not much had changed at Fort Weyr or Pern in the present time, she had changed greatly. She was three Turns older—and wiser. When the dragonriders of Telgar Weyr were all tragically lost between, Fiona volunteered to go to Telgar Weyr to revive its Thread-fighting forces. She was accompanied by bronze rider T’mar and many other dragons and their riders who, during their sojourn in the past, had grown to know her, love her, and respect her.

  But at Telgar, tragedy struck again: More dragons, including Fiona’s beloved Talenth, were stricken with the same illness that had already killed so many of the dragons of Pern. It looked as if Fiona would surely lose her dragon … until ex-dragonrider Lorana and Harper Kindan arrived from Benden with a cure—a cure won at the cost of Lorana’s own queen dragon.

  An extraordinary and unusual relationship arose among Fiona, Lorana, and Kindan, in which Fiona bonded with both of them—and discovered a strange telepathic connection with Lorana. This three-way bond, as well as her special relationship with bronze rider T’mar, bolstered Fiona as the Weyrs struggled with the knowledge that even though the deadly dragon illness was no more, the surviving numbers were not nearly enough to protect the planet from Thread.

  Losses continued to mount. Lorana, who had the rare ability to bespeak all dragons, felt every death, and despite the wonder of her newfound pregnancy, and everything Fiona and Kindan tried to do to protect her, she grew increasingly desperate … until that desperation forced to her to attempt a bold plan.…

  CHRONOLOGY OF THE SECOND INTERVAL/THIRD PASS

  DATE (AL) EVENT BOOK

  492.4 Marriage: Terregar and Silstra Dragon’s Kin

  493.10 Kisk Hatches Dragon’s Kin

  494.1 Kindan to Harper Hall Dragon’s Kin

  495.8 C’tov Impresses Sereth Dragon’s Fire

  496.8 Plague Starts Dragon Harper

  497.5 Plague Ends Dragon Harper

  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 between to nowhere Fiona,

  T’mar, H’nez to Telgar Weyr Kinden, 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 thirteen months, each of twenty-eight days (four weeks, or sevendays) with a special “Turnover” day at the end of each Turn for a total of 365 days.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Other Books by These Authors

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  LETTER TO READERS

  FOR READERS NEW TO PERN

  CHRONOLOGY OF THE SECOND INTERVAL/THIRD PASS

  Map

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  The way forward is dark and long.

  A dragon gold is only the first price you’ll pay for Pern.

  Cold. Black. Silent. Deadly.

  Between. That strange nothingness where dragons can go that can only be described as “between one place and another.”

  “Between only lasts as long as it takes to cough three times.” For a short journey, yes. For a journey from one place to another, anywhere on Pern—yes, three coughs is enough. But when traveling between one time and another—it takes longer. A cold, silent, freezing longer that saps life.

  Lorana felt nothing, not the warmth of the queen dragon beneath her, not even the tiny, tender presence that warmed her womb.

  I’m sorry! Lorana cried, her hand going to her belly. There was no other way!

  No response.

  Pern was dying, there were too few dragons and riders to protect it from Thread. Slowly, steadily, inexorably, the protection of Pern was being eroded, was dying out. The dragonriders, including Weyrleader T’mar, Weyrwoman Fiona, and all the Weyrleaders of the four other Weyrs, had tried their best, had developed new tactics, had kept adapting, kept striving, kept searching for some way out of their trap. But the problem was that there were too few dragons, less than a third the number required, and more were being lost each Fall.

  The dragons’ numbers were so few because of the strange sickness that had come upon them just before the start of this new Pass of the Red Star. Lorana, with Kindan’s stout aid, had succeeded in finding help from the distant past and that help had led them to a cure for the sickness. In the meantime, however, too many dragons had succumbed to the sickness—and more to Thread—leaving too few dragons to protect the planet. In desperation, because no one could conceive of getting further help from the past, Lorana had decided to jump forward in time, to jump ahead to a time after the Third Pass and beg for aid from the future.

  She was the only one with a sure sense of time and place—a gift, she thought, from her special link with all the dragons of Pern—and only she could make the journey forward to such an unknown, unseen time. She used the Red Star to guide her, picturing it and the stars in their stations where they would be fifty Turns from her present.

  Using her gift came at a price, however. A jump of this length would be a terrible strain on her and gold Minith. But it would be fatal to the life stirring inside her.

  Lorana wailed silently. Go back! she urged herself. Go back before it’s too late.

  I can’t, she decided a moment later. It’s too late. I’m all alone.

  I’m here! Minith called to her feebly, her touch full of support. You are not alone.

  Lorana made no reply. She knew she couldn’t explain herself to the gold dragon, to a queen who laid eggs.

  Everything I’ve loved, I’ve lost, Lorana thought to herself, letting her hand slip, unfelt, unfeeling, from her belly.

  I’ve lost my own queen, my beloved fire-lizards, and now … She couldn’t finish the thought.

  Tears froze on her cheeks, her heart beat at a slow, glacial pace, as the cold of between sapped her strength, her life.

  And stilled the life of the other inside her.

  A dragon gold is only the first price …

  The cold between gripped her and she knew no more.

  Lorana closed her eyes in a spasm of pain. She was in a bed, in a nightgown. Fearful, her hands went to her belly—it was flat, lifeless.

  “You lost the baby,” a voice said. It was old, hoarse with age, but somehow familiar. “But you knew that. You planned on it.”

  Tullea. Benden’s Weyrwoman, Minith’s rightful rider.

  Minith? Lorana called.

  I am here, the queen responded quickly. There was no echo to her voice: no sign that an older Minith—a Minith of this future time—had heard her call.

  “Don’t,” Tullea warned harshly. “You are still too weak. I wasn’t sure that you wanted to live yourself.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Perhaps you didn’t, really.”

  “Where am I? Is the Pass over?” Lorana asked, her eyes still closed. Her mouth was dry; her voice was slurred and felt awkward.

  “The Pass is over,” Tullea affirmed. “That much I’ll tell you and no more.”r />
  “Help?” Lorana said. She realized that word wasn’t enough and, after another breath, asked, “Will you send help?”

  “Dragons from the future?” Tullea said. “Simple, quick, efficient! Oh, yes, no worries for those left behind.” She snorted and added viciously, “Oh, no! No, dragon-stealer, you won’t find any dragons in the future.”

  “None?” Lorana opened her eyes only to find the room completely dark.

  “None for you,” Tullea snapped back. “You were always meddling when you should have left things alone.”

  “Where’s B’nik?” Lorana asked.

  “Where’s his jacket?” Tullea retorted. She barked a bitter laugh. “Between, that’s where! Where you left it!”

  Lorana wondered for a moment if the old queen rider had gone insane.

  “Where you must go, now!” Tullea went on, and Lorana gasped as, abruptly, the blankets were pulled off her. “Get up, your things are over there!”

  “But—I want to talk—”

  “You’ve talked enough!” Tullea snapped, grabbing Lorana’s hand and feebly pulling on it. “You’re well enough to travel; it’s time—long time—you were gone.” Tullea seemed to think her last comment funny and let out another bitter laugh.

  The faintest of glows, smaller than any Lorana had ever seen, was turned. It provided only a dim light, which revealed bare stone walls, the rude blanket thrown over her, and the rough, reed bed beneath her. And Tullea—old, bent, white-haired, almost unrecognizable.

  “Take my dragon with you, dragon-stealer!” Tullea said, throwing clothes toward her.