Kindly the harper shook his head. "He's too weak to see anyone though he asked Alemi to tell you why he hadn't been arnund.

T'lion groaned again. "I I . . . should have taken him right then to the Hold Healer, right when Afo told us there was a bad thorn but I was late to collect you "And I was annoyed and rushed you off that day. It's by no means all your fault, T'lion, and you mustn't take it so hard.

And,' now the harper's tone lightened and T'lion saw he was smiling wryly, "all the healers insist that Readis must swim every day to regain tone in the leg muscles."

"They did?" Some of the heavy pressure in T'lion's chest lightened.

"it's the best chance he has to recover.

"What does his mother say to that?"

Boskoney's grin was even more ironic. "She has had to agree to the treatment. It is the only way he'll walk again."

"Ohhhh!" T'lion buried his head in his hands again, shaking it from side to side. "He was like my brother "Now, T'lion, enough of this guilt. It was an unfortunate concatenation of circ.u.mstances. However, I may say unreservedly that Readis is delighted. He finds it no ch.o.r.e to have to a.s.sociate with dolphins daily. I heard him tell his mother that he walks in water better than he can on land!'

T'lion gave a rueful laugh. "He would, wouldn't he? He's such a brave lad."

"He'll be fine. You will be, too."

Chapter Nine.

ver the next four Turns, while Readis earnestly exer cised his legs in the warm waters of Paradise Head, entous events unfolded at Landing, Benden Weyr, Cove Hold and Fort Hold. With advice and counsel from Aivas, Weyrs, Halls and Holds combined their efforts with the technology available from Aivas and altered the orbit of the Red Star so that it would never again come close enough to Pern to threaten the planet with Threadfall. On the day that the explosion of the anti-matter engines of the three colony ships was viewed through distance lenses, everyone on Pern celebrated the end of Thread tyranny. Only Thread did not stop falling, a demonstrable fact which confused many, including Readis.

"Then why did you celebrate?" he asked his father, four days later when Thread fell across Paradise River Hold.

"Because Thread will end - this is the last Pa.s.s.

"It is? Harper says that we've had it for centuries and every time we think it's going to stop - in a long Interval - it comes back anyhow."

Jayge grinned at his son, tall for his eleven Turns, and tried not to glance down at the wasted right leg which c.o.c.ked on tiptoe beside the uninjured left foot. He ruffled Readis' curly hair and thought instead that it was unfair for the boys in the family to have the curls while the two girls had straight hair.

"The dragonriders have gone to the Red Star and steered it away from getting close enough to bring Thread to Pern ever again."

"How could they move a star?" Readis demanded. "It's too big, even for dragons.

"They used the engines from the Dawn Sisters. They pulled the Star out of an orbit that brings it too close to Pern Do you understand what I mean?"

"Sure. Harper's told us all about our star system. He put a coconut down for the sun and then walked all the way to the edge of the river to put down a tiny pebble for Pern." Readis giggled. "He said that's the re-la-tive distances involved." Patently Readis could only repeat what he had been told and did not quite comprehend the subtleties of the explanation. "Pern isn't as small as that pebble. I know that!'

"You'll understand better as you grow up.

"Everyone's always saying that,' Readis replied disgustedly.

"You'll find it's true,' Jayge said, hearing an echo of his own boyish voice. "However, Boskoney has advised us to enrol you in the Landing school."

"Huh? And leave Paradise?" Readis was appalled at the very thought.

"Daytimes, six of a sevenday, with a break during the hot season.

"Daaad!'

"You, Kami, and Pardure are enrolled. At that, Paradise River is exceedingly lucky to gain three places out the twenty-five available to special students "You mean, because of my leg I have to go away?"

"There's not a thing wrong with Kami and Pardure, my young lad!" his father said sternly.

Readis was not completely mollified. He hated anyone making concessions for him. He only rode the small runner Lord Jaxom had trained and sent especially for his use in getting about on land because Ruth had said that he, the white dragon, had selected the beast for Readis who had been so good about scrubbing his hide all these Turns. The little creature had made it possible for Readis to go wherever the other youngsters of the Hold roamed: the boy was as good a rider as he was a swimmer.

Aramina preferred him to use Delky, the runner: anything to keep him out of the water and away from the dolphins. She could not be convinced that the dolphins were not responsible for his illness and subsequent crippling. It was Aramina who heard about the proposed special cla.s.ses to be held in the Admin building. using the information machines which were the legacy of Aivas. Menolly had told Alemi who had not only requested the concession for his eldest daughter but for Readis as well.

"How'll I get there?" Readis demanded of his father, sticking his chin out almost impertinently.

"A-dragonback. I trust you won't mind that. Jayge knew that the transport might be the final persuader.

"Every day?" Readis brightened considerably. "We'd have to ride a dragon every morning and every evening?" He hoped that T'lion and Gadareth would do the conveying. He'd never been able to convince his mother that T'lion wasn't in some way responsible for his illness. He'd told her time and again that T'Iion had told him, twice, to go see Temma for the thorn and he'd forgotten. So his illness, and his bad leg, were not T'lion's fault, but his. He heard what his father was saying then.

"This is a special dispensation for the three of you, until a dormitory can be set up for the pupils."

"A-dragonback twice a day?" Readis did not hear that qualifier, his eyes shining with the prospect of riding dragons on a regular basis.

"Only as long as you study hard enough to deserve the honour,' his father said sternly.

Boskoney's report listed Readis as his top student over Kami and the studious Pardure, Journeyman Weaver Parren's eldest.

While Pardure studied hard for his knowledge, everything seemed to come easily to Readis who would benefit from the challenge of a more structured learning climate. Compet.i.tion for the few places available had been intense but Master Robinton, whose scheme this was, had insisted that the students be harper-recommended and they had to be proportionately drawn from Weyr, Hall and Hold.

Master Robinton wanted to be sure this current generation of young people grew up, trained from an early age to absorb and utilize the vast amount of knowledge available through Aivas.

He had started special cla.s.ses with just a few suitable pupils from the Landing residents and each Turn had increased the size of the cla.s.ses. Aivas had agreed, remarking that it would be easier to train youngsters up - since they would have no mis-information to be corrected - than to retrain men and women who would have to alter life-long habits of thinking and learning. Now that the main push of everyone's efforts - the Red Star project - was accomplished, the Halls could concentrate on spreading new devices that would raise living standards all across Pern. Once power could be generated in Holds, Halls and Weyrs, the special equipment Aivas had taught people how to use could be extended throughout the planet, instead of centralized at Landing.

Wind and tide generators were being studied by Jayge and his Craft Hall residents to see which would suit their needs best.

Journeyman Parren could produce quant.i.ties on a powered loom of the coveted fabrics he made from the local fibre plants. Better lights would be a tremendous help in every household, and the fans which would stir air during the hot season would make life more bearable. Other applications of power generation were being studied, especially the manufacture of ice so the fish catches would remain fresher longer. Alemi was very keen for that amenity.

Jayge found some of the concepts difficult to understand so he was delighted that Readis would have the opportunity to start off, absorbing the new wonders at a better "learning' age.

Such training would also make the boy more acceptable to the Council of Holders when it came time for him to be confirmed in his Holding. In the meantime, Jayge was determined to improve the Hold and its resources. The basics of figuring, reading and scripting taught by harpers along with traditional ballads and songs was well enough for those who would be apprenticed to a craft but a holder needed a broader, overall view. Jayge had learned how to hold through trial and error, to survive when he and Aramina had been shipwrecked on this coast, but he wanted more for his sons and daughters.

Readis was all set for his session at school the following morning, his knapsack packed and he had a flying jacket and cap to protect him between when a fire-lizard came screaming in to land on the porch. He heard its distressed cry at the same time as his family and reached the porch just as his father was unfastening the message tube the fire-lizard wore.

As soon as he released it, the little creature, still desperately keening, flitted out and was gone, followed by the resident fair who picked up its tormented cry.

"No, no, nonono, Jayge said, shaking his head in denial as he scanned the message. "No. He can't be!'

"What's the matter, Dad?" Readis asked. He'd never seen such a look of anguish on his father's face.

Jayge bowed his head to his chest and slumped against the railing, covering his eyes with one hand while the other held the message; a narrow strip of paper.

"Dad?" Readis felt the first twinge of panic. Something terrible had happened. "Dad?" Readis needed to be rea.s.sured.

"Readis, go tell Boskoney to come. Take Delky,' and he gestured toward the little runner, standing hipshotten in the shade at the corner of the house.

As Readis vaulted to her back, he looked over his shoulder and saw his father, sagging and motionless. He dug his heels into the willing little beast's ribs and she was away in a flash.

Readis really liked having Delky to ride on land but it wasn't a patch on swimming with Kib or Afo. For all she was patient and willing, Delky couldn't talk to him, not as the dolphins and the dragons did so he found her distinctly lacking. Even fire-lizards gave you some sort of reaction. Delky only did what she was asked to do. Still, she was useful. He sat back on her rump and, as she'd been trained, she came to a complete halt, showering sand into the harper's open doorway.

"What's the rush now, m'lad?" Boskoney asked, coming to the door.

"Dad wants you. Urgent. Fire-lizard brought a message and it's upset him."

"It has?"

Readis gestured for Boskoney to mount behind him, though the harper's legs would catch any bushes on the way back.

Obedient and uncomplaining, Delky swivelled neatly on her hindquarters and cantered back as easily with her double burden as she had with only Readis' light body.

"What sort of message?" Boskoney demanded, reaching through Readis' arms to clutch Delky's mane.

"He didn't say. Just told me to get you.

"He hasn't moved a muscle since I left,' Readis muttered to Boskoney as the harper dismounted at the porch steps. Readis was really worried now. Bad news didn't often trouble Paradise River. When something did go wrong, his father was more apt to curse and pace and wave his arms about, but he was never silent and all drawn in on himself like now.

Hearing the harper's step, Jayge reached the message strip in his direction. In the act of stepping up, the harper halted, foot held midair a long moment before he sort of turned and sank to the top step, head in his hands and his shoulders shaking. That was too much for Readis. He kneed Delky around the house to the kitchen door where his mother was preparing their supper.

"Mother,' Readis said, edging into the house and touching her arm, "I think you better go see what's wrong with Father."

"What could be wrong with your father, dear?" she asked in a voice that suddenly seemed too loud to Readis.

"He got some bad news and sent me for Boskoney. Now he's sitting on the porch and . . . What would make a harper cry, mother?"

Aramina shot her son a startled look before she took the heavy pan off the fire and half ran to the front of the house. Readis moved after her in the touch-toe/step gait he had adopted to get him places almost as quickly as anyone else on two good feet.

Before he could reach the porch, he heard his mother crying.

not loudly as she had when she learned of Granddad's death but softly as if the pain inside her was unbearable. She had her arms about Jayge and was comforting him even as she wept.

The scene was too much for Readis and he retraced his steps, vaulted up on Delky's back again and raced her toward the cl.u.s.ter of cotholds down the river bank.

"I think you better get up to the hold, Aunt Temma, Uncle Nazer. You, too, Uncle Swacky,' he added when the burly figure of the grizzled old soldier appeared in the doorway. "I don't know what's happened but it's made Dad, Mother and Boskoney cry." He didn't wait to see if they followed but turned Delky around again and had her galloping past the tableau on his porch and on to Alemi's hold. He brought Alemi back with him on Delky, leaving Kitrin and the other fishmen to follow on foot.

When Alemi arrived, Temma, Nazer, Swacky, Parren and his wife and oldest daughter were standing about, weeping, too. The strip of paper was pa.s.sed to Alemi who began to breathe deeply and swallow while tears crept down his cheeks.

Seeing his chance, Readis turned Unclemi's hand toward him so he could read this awful message.

"Master Robinton and Zair have died. Aivas, too." The stark words did not immediately make sense to him. Master Robinton couldn't die. Everyone needed him. Readis knew that. And how could a machine die? He knew that Aivas was a machine, a very intelligent machine, who knew a great deal but still a machine.

Machines didn't die, they just . . . just ran down? Wore out?

Suddenly the air was full of fire-lizards, all of them uttering the most incredible keening noise, sort of edgy and hurting the ears: sounds he'd never heard them make ever before in his life. They went diving about the air, swooping down to the roof of the hold, and then up again, unable to settle, all the time making that dreadful noise.

"What's the matter? My fire-lizard is terribly upset, cried Lur, one of the landsmen, who came running up to the main hold.

Behind him on the path, Readis could see other holders and crafters making their way here, attracted by the fire-lizards' unusual behavior. Alemi had slipped off Delky and joined those mourning on the porch so Readis kneed his runner to meet Lur, showing him the message. Lur's face went very pale under his tan and he collapsed against the nearest tree, bawling in great sobs. So Readis pointed Delky on down the path, showing everyone the message as he reached them. Soon everyone had congregated around the porch, weeping and immersed in this grief. Their children, not quite understanding the terrible loss, a.s.sembled a little away from the adults, confused by the atmosphere and the sight of their grieving parents.

It was the strangest evening Readis ever lived through. He watched as his father took a long time to coax Tork, his firelizard, to come to him so he could send off a message. Some of the women followed his mother into the house and they came back with wine. Another group went back to their houses and brought food, not that anyone other than the hungriest of the little kids ate much.

When the sun set, no-one seemed inclined to go home. The harper was still on the steps, turning a half-empty wine gla.s.s in his hands . . . Aramina or Jayge kept filling it. Readis noticed that tears kept dropping off his jaw and Boskoney made no move to dry them. Well, he was a harper and he would have been taught by Master Robinton so you could understand his grieving for the death of his Master. Readis thought it even sadder that the Master Harper's fire-lizard had died at the same time. That sort of loyalty brought a lump to his throat - even thinking that Delky, Kib or Afo might die along with him, should he die soon.

He nearly had the time he'd been so sick with the thorn poison in his foot. He knew that dragons died when their riders did but no-one who had a fire-lizard had died in Paradise River so he wasn't sure about their reaction. Then he realized that the grown-ups on the lawn were talking softly among themselves.

Kami thought they should get some glowbaskets. So Readis led her and Pardure who offered to help to where they kept them and set enough out so that this remarkable scene was lit.

Many Turns later, Readis remembered that night and the shadows cast on familiar faces all saddened by their loss. He remembered that, although there had been many skins of wine opened, and everyone was drinking, no-one got merry from the wine. There was no singing which was most unusual for any group with a harper in the center of it. Readis wondered as the night got later and later why no-one was chasing him and the other youngsters off to their beds. The littlest ones fell asleep where they were, on a parent's lap or on the ground beside them. Eventually he got up and collected covers for Aranya, Kami and her sisters and himself and Pardure and Anskono: his baby brother was sleeping in the hammock on the porch with their mother.

He tried to stay awake, to see what staying up all night was like, but the soft murmur of sad voices lulled him to sleep.

When he woke the next morning, he was in his own bed.

Checking outside, he saw that a fair number of people had slept the night on the gra.s.s. Boskoney occupied the hammock, Aramina's prized rug covering him. This was the day Readis was supposed to start school but he knew it wouldn't start today. The school had been Master Robinton's idea. Maybe it wouldn't happen now he was dead. Somehow Readis didn't like being deprived of that opportunity, especially when it mean he'd be going journeying to school a-dragonback.

His stomach was rumbling, since he hadn't eaten much last night out of deference to the occasion, so Readis went to the larder to see what he could find to eat. Evidently alerted by the small noises he was making, Aranya entered the kitchen, Almie tagging beside her.

"Hungry,' Almie said clearly, pouting. Although Aranya was in a clean coverall, Almie was still in the rumpled things she'd worn yesterday. "I'm empty in my middle."

"I'll feed you so be quiet,' Readis said in a low voice. He sort of figured his parents wouldn't want to be awakened. His baby brother would always sleep until someone, or some loud noise, woke him. Readis didn't want the loud noise to be Almie.

He set out bowls, filled them with the fruit which was always sliced and ready in the cooler and toasted bread for his sisters so they'd keep quiet. He spread Almie's bread with the sweetener she loved because he knew if he didn't, she'd demand it and loudly, too. Aranya was much easier to deal with than Almie.

Then he got the grain for the poultry and took care of them, and Delky who patiently waited out the back door for her morning handful of corn. The canines were just getting restless when he deposited their bowls in the run. They could howl loud enough to wake the dead, as his mother often said. Back in the kitchen, he heated water and ground more klah bark because the jar was empty. One thing for sure he knew would be needed was plenty of klah.

He got Aranya to take Almie into their room and wash her and dress her. Aranya loved playing "mother' to their sister.

He was just sitting down to his own toast when Kami slipped in the back door, her blue eyes wide with the tidings and her expression solemn.

"It's awful, isn't it?" she whispered at him.

"They're still asleep,' Readis said, speaking low but not in a whisper. He gestured with the toasting fork and she shook her head. She did however look wistfully at the pitcher of fruit juice on the table so he filled her a gla.s.s of it.

"Father got messages this morning. We're all to sail to Monaco to escort the Harper to sea.

Readis felt his throat close over. Boskoney had sung a very moving song about an honorable sea burial, for another old harper, Aunt Menolly's master. It would be like that.

"All of us?" Readis asked after swallowing the lump. All of us in Paradise?" He meant children as well as grown-ups.