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INTRODUCTION

WHEN IS A legend legend? Why is a myth a ated to the category “Fairy-tale”? And why do certain facts remain incontrovertible while others lose their validity to assume a shabby, unstable character?

Rukbat, in the Sagittarian sector, was a golden G-type star It had five planets, and one stray it had attracted and held in recent millennia Its third planet was enveloped by air man could breathe, boasted water he could drink, and possessed a gravity that permitted man to walk confidently erect Men discovered it and promptly colonized it They did that to every habitable planet, and then—whether callously or through collapse of eot to ask—left the colonies to fend for themselves

When men first settled on Rukbat’s third world and naer-planet, swinging around its adopted prienerations they had forgotten its existence The desperate path the wanderer pursued brought it close to its stepsister every two hundred (Terran) years at perihelion

When the aspects were harh, as it often was, the indigenous life of the wanderer sought to bridge the space gap to the more temperate and hospitable planet

It was during the frantic struggle to coh Pern’s skies like silver threads that Pern’s tenuous contact with the mother planet was broken Recollections of Earth receded further froeneration until end or myth, into oblivion

To forestall the incursions of the dreadful Threads, the Pernese, with the ingenuity of their forgotten Terran forebears, developed a highly specialized variety of a life-forh e and some innate telepathic ability were trained to use and preserve this unusual anireat value in the fierce struggle to keep Pern bare of Threads

The winged, tailed, and fiery-breathed dragons (naonmen, a breed apart, and the ends and myths

Once relieved of ier, Pern settled into a more comfortable way of life The descendants of heroes fell into disfavor, as the legends fell into disrepute

PART I

Weyr Search

Drummer, beat, and piper, blow,

Harper, strike, and soldier, go

Free the flarasses

Till the dawning Red Star passes

LESSA WOKE, COLD Cold with ly claer than the one ten full Turns ago that had then sent her, whi with terror, to hide in the watch-wher’s odorous lair

Rigid with concentration, Lessa lay in the straw of the redolent cheeserooes There was an urgency in the o She touched the awareness of the watch-wher, slithering on its rounds in the courtyard It circled at the choke li unusual in the predawn darkness

Lessa curled into a tight knot of bones, hugging herself to ease the strain across her tense shoulders Then, forcing herself to relax, muscle by muscle, joint by joint, she tried to feel what subtle ht be that could rouse her, yet not distress the sensitive watch-wher

The danger was definitely not within the walls of Ruath Hold Nor approaching the paved perirowth through the ancient reen witness to the deterioration of the once stone-clean Hold The danger was not advancing up the now little-used causeway fros at the foot of the Hold’s cliff It did not scent the wind that blew froh her senses, vibrating every nerve in Lessa’s slender fraht to identify it before the prescient mood dissolved She cast outward, toward the Pass, farther than she had ever pressed Whatever threatened was not in Ruathayet Nor did it have a familiar flavor It was not, then, Fax

Lessa had been cautiously pleased that Fax had not shown himself at Ruath Hold in three full Turns The apathy of the craftsreen-etched stones of the Hold infuriated Fax, self-styled Lord of the High Reaches, to the point where he preferred to forget the reason he had subjugated the once proud and profitable Hold

Relentlessly coroped in the straw for her sandals She rose,straw from matted hair, which she then twisted quickly into a rude knot at her neck

She picked her way alided up the worn steps to the kitchen proper The cook and his assistant lay on the long table before the great hearth, wide backs to the war Lessa slipped across the cavernous kitchen to the stable-yard door She opened the door just enough to perht body to pass The cobbles of the yard were icy through the thin soles of her sandals, and she shivered as the predawn air penetrated her patched garment

The watch-wher slithered across the yard to greet her, pleading, as it always did, for release Coly, she fondled the creases of the sharp-tipped ears as itfondly down at the awesoroaning, at the end of its chain as she continued to the grooved steps that led to the raate Atop the tower, Lessa stared toward the east where the stony breasts of the Pass rose in black relief against the gathering day

Indecisively she swung to her left, for the sense of danger issued frolanced upward, her eyes drawn to the red star that had recently begun to dominate the dawn sky As she stared, the star radiated a final ruby pulsation before itssun Incoherent fragments of tales and ballads about the dawn appearance of the red star flashed through her mind, too quickly to er reater peril to contend with froap between peril and person, she stared intently eastward The watch-wher’s thin, whistled question reached her just as the prescience waned

Lessa sighed She had found no answer in the dawn, only discrepant portents Shehad co Perversity, endurance, and guile were her other weapons, loaded with the inexhaustible patience of vengeful dedication

Dawnlight illumined the tumbled landscape, the unplowe

d fields in the valley belonlight fell on twisted orchards, where the sparse herds of rass Grass in Ruatha, Lessa rehere it should not, died where it should flourish Lessa could hardly remember no Ruatha Valley had once looked, sweetly happy, a smile curved lips unused to such exercise Fax realized no profit from his conquest of Ruathanor would he while she, Lessa, lived And he had not the slightest suspicion of the source of this undoing

Or had he, Lessa wondered, her er West lay Fax’s ancestral and only legitimate Hold Northeast lay little but bare and stony mountains and the Weyr that protected Pern

Lessa stretched, arching her back, inhaling the sweet, untainted wind of

A cock crowed in the stable yard Lessa whirled, her face alert, eyes darting around the outer Hold lest she be observed in such an uncharacteristic pose She unbound her hair, letting the rank ly Her body drooped into the sloppy posture she affected Quickly she thudded down the stairs, crossing to the watch-wher It cried piteously, its great eyes blinking against the growing daylight Oblivious to the stench of its rank breath, she hugged the scaly head to her, scratching its ears and eye ridges The watch-as ecstatic with pleasure, its long body tre It alone kneho she was or cared And it was the only creature in all Pern she had trusted since the dawn she had blindly sought refuge in its dark, stinking lair to escape the thirsty swords that had drunk so deeply of Ruathan blood

Slowly she rose, cautioning it to remember to be as vicious to her as to all, should anyone be near It pro back and forth to emphasize its reluctance

The first rays of the sun glanced over the Hold’s outer wall, and, crying out, the watch-wher darted into its dark nest Lessa crept swiftly back to the kitchen and into the cheeseroom

From the Weyr and from the Bowl,