"Todd McCaffrey - Pern 19 - Dragonsblood" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCaffrey Todd)

Published by Ballantine Books

DRAGONHOLDER

DRAGONSBLOOD
 By Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

DRAGON’SKIN




ONE

Red Star at night:
Firestone, dig,
Harness, rig,
Dragons take flight.

Fort Weyr, at the end of the Second Interval,
After Landing (AL) 507

Four men stood in a knot around the Star Stones of Fort Weyr. The sun was
just above the horizon, casting the harsh shadows of early dawn at winter’s
end. Each man wore the prestigious shoulder knots of Weyrleader. Their warm
wher-hide jackets proclaimed them the leaders of Benden, Fort, Telgar, and
Ista Weyrs.

K’lior, Fort’s Weyrleader, was host and the youngest present. He was also the
newest Weyrleader, having gained his position less than a Turn before.

He glanced back to the Star Stones—to the Eye Rock, which bracketed the
Finger Rock, which itself was lit by the baleful Red Star. Thread was coming.
Soon.

The air was made more chilly by the steady breeze blowing across the plateau
where Fort’s Star Stones were placed. K’lior suppressed a shiver. “Fort is
still wing light. We’ve only had the one clutch—”

“There’s time yet, K’lior,” C’rion, Ista’s Weyrleader, judged. He pointed at
the Red Star and the Eye Rock. “Thread won’t fall until after the last frost.”

“There’s no doubt, then, that Thread is coming,” K’lior said, wishing the
other Weyrleaders would disagree with him.

For over two hundred Turns, the planet of Pern had been free of the threat of
Thread falling from the sky.

Now that peace would end.