Anne McCaffrey - Pern 01 - Dragon Rider.pdf

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McCaffrey Pern 01 Dragonrider
On the world called Pern, the human inhabitants have no tradition of
Earth or of space travel. There is a legendary vagueness about the menace
of the Threads which fall when the freakish orbit of the Red Star (a
captured planet) brings it close to Pern. Though nobles and commoners
are in awe of the Dragons and the elite corps who ride them, they are
ignorant of the nature of the powers bred into both Dragons and riders.
In the Hold of Ruatha, young Lessa had for half her life used her inborn
mental powers to camouflage herself from the men of Fax, the brigand lord
who slaughtered her entire family to secure his seizure of their Hold. She
also managed, by small subtle interferences, to disrupt all the workings of
Ruatha, so that Fax had no profit from his conquest.
Fax did not know of her existence; but when the dragonrider F'lar
inspected Fax's Holds in search of a potential Weyrwoman, he knew that
someone at Ruatha had the abilities he was looking for, especially when he
realized that he had been maneuvered into a duel with Fax. The latter
dead, Lessa claimed Ruatha. But in the fury to which she had provoked
him, Fax had renounced this unprofitable Hold in favor of his youngest son,
born that night. F'lar told Lessa that the infant's claim must stand, but that
she had the Power needed in a Weyrwoman. She agreed to go with him to
the Weyr.
Lessa her duties. Meanwhile few Holds sent tithes and the Lords of the
others called the dragonriders parasites, the legendary Threads a lie. After
Lessa secretly encouraged raids on the herds of disaffected Holds to make
up the shortage of food, there was active revolt. But by the time troops
marched on the Weyr, the situation had drastically changed. Ramoth, now
two Turns old, was full-grown and larger even than F'lar's bronze
Mnementh. She had made her nuptial flight, and Mnementh had claimed
her. Their rapport with the dragons brought F'lar and Lessa together with
the same passion.
The new Weyrieader F'lar was quick-witted and decisive: he sent parties
of dragonriders to make hostages of the womenfolk of the rebel lords. Their
Holds were unguarded, for they had forgotten that a dragon can fly
between, passing almost instantly from one place to another. So the tithes
would be paid; the Weyr would prosper again.
weyrleader's taunt. He ground his teeth together as if he could grind away
F'lar's authority over him.
"There have been no Threads in Pern's skies for over four hundred
Turns. They're are no more!"
"There is always that possibility," F'lar conceded amiably.
There was not, however, the slightest trace of tolerance in his amber
eyes. Nor the slightest hint of compromise in his manner.
He was more like F'lon, his sire, R'gul decided, than a son had any right
to be. Always so sure of himself, always slightly contemptuous of what
others did and thought. Arrogant, that's what F'lar was. Impertinent, too,
and underhanded in the matter of that young Weyrwoman. Why, R'gul had
trained her up to be one of the finest Weyrwomen in many Turns. Before
he'd finished her instruction, she'd known all the Teaching Ballads and
Sagas letter-perfect. And then the silly child had turned to F'lar. Didn't have
sense enough to appreciate the merits of an older, more experienced man.
Undoubtedly she felt a first obligation to F'lar for discovering her on Search.
"You do, however," F'lar was saying, "admit that when the sun hits the
Finger Rock at the moment of dawn, winter solstice has been reached?"
"Any fool knows that's what the Finger Rock is for," R'gul grunted.
"There is, you know, R'gul, incontrovertible evidence to support my
conclusions," F'lar went on with deceptive mildness. "'The Finger points/At
an Eye blood-red ...' "
"Don't quote me verses I taught you as a weyriing," R'gul exclaimed
heatedly.
"Then have faith in what you taught," F'lar snapped back, his amber
eyes flashing dangerously.
R'gul, stunned by the unexpected forcefulness, sank back into his chair.
"You cannot deny, R'gul," F'lar continued quietly, "that no less than half
an hour ago the sun balanced on the
Finger's tip at dawn and the Red Star was squarely framed by the Eye
Rock."
The other dragonriders, bronze as well as brown, murmured and
nodded their agreement to that
phenomenon. There was also an undercurrent of resentment for R'gul's
continual contest of F'lar's policies
as the new Weyrleader. Even old S'lel, once R'gul's avowed supporter,
was following the majority.
"There have been no Threads in four hundred Turns. There are no
Threads," R'gul muttered.."Then, my fellow dragonman," F'lar said
cheerfully, "all you have taught is falsehood. The dragons are, as

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