Kami nodded. "Father says we'll use all three ships so just about everyone can be there to honour our Master Harper.

Father said we should never forget what we owe Master Robinton."

"Then we will be able to go to school?" Readis asked.

"Oh, how can you think of something like school when the whole world mourns?" Kami's voice rose in her disgust of his innocent query.

"It's a fair question,'said Jayge from the doorway. "Ah, klah!

That was thoughtful of someone,' he added and c.o.c.ked his head toward Readis. "Good lad. Your sisters are fed and occupied?

Thank you." He poured three cups, adding sweetener in two and placed them on a tray. "I'll be back. Toast me some bread, would you, Readis. I don't think any of us ate anything last night.

"A moment, please, Holder Readis,' Kami began formally and she took a deep breath. "My father says that a message has come requesting the Hold to come to Monaco Bay tomorrow morning.

My father says the ships will have to be loaded and casting off at the top of the night to reach Monaco by the appointed time.

"All three ships? Hmm, that'll be room enough for everyone?"

Kami nodded, the picture of solemnity, "Yes, sir. Everyone who can come, should, he said. The message said so."

"Very well. Can you take the message round the Hold? Good, thank you, Kami.

Kami slipped out the back door and, through the window, Readis could see her running down the path toward the cotholds.

"The bread, please, Readis, and enough for your mother and Boskoney, too."

It was an odd day. People did what they usually did but everyone was solemn-faced. Some people were red-eyed and sniffed a lot.

Especially when Readis played messenger and gave out the ship a.s.signments which Unclemi sent for him to deliver. He wondered if Unclemi had told the dolphins. He must have, for when they boarded the Fair Winds in the middle of the night, he could see the dorsals crowding the water and the sleek silvery bodies in the starlight, and hear the dolphin song.

He couldn't stay awake as long as he wanted to: last night had been tiring and the day had been, too, in the oddest possible way. The dolphins were singing a sad song, too. He curled up in his cover in the prow of the Fair Winds and fell asleep to the hiss of water and the gentle motion of the ship on a calm sea.

When they arrived in Monaco Bay, there was a great array of ships and small craft and hundreds and hundreds of dolphins in the water. In the air, in great fairs, thicker even than those that had swept across the Hold yesterday, the fire-lizards raced back and forth, blotting the sun at times. He was so busy with that display he didn't at first notice the ship, all wreathed in black, that was anch.o.r.ed at the pier. The Fair Winds was standing far enough out in the bay so that his father had to call his attention to the procession, a small column heading to the dock. Readis was given a chance to use Unclemi's far-viewer.

"I want you to remember this, Readis,' his father said, pa.s.sing him the cylinder. "A great man has died!'

So they watched as the ship unfurled its sails, black, and slowly they bellied with the light wind.

it moved from the pier. Unclemi made sail, too, them by, and followed in its wake, Readis all the that maybe a dolphin would be hurt, there were them, as they leaped in escort.

trimmed in Majestically as it pa.s.sed time fearful so many of What Readis remembered most that day, besides the awful solemnity of that ship and the covered body on its prow, was the dragons in the sky, wing after wing of them in close formation, hanging motionless as the ceremony was conducted.

He remembered the terrible keening of the dragons as the Master Harper's body slipped into the water. The hairs on his neck stood up and he could feel the sound down to the heels of both feet.

It was far worse than the noise the fire-lizards had made: the dolphins squeeing and clicking only added to the uncanny noise.

Had the dolphins known the Master Harper, too? Then all the pods gave one final leap and seemed to disappear. Readis could hold his breath pretty well now and he had unconsciously held it just as they submerged. But they just didn't come back up and then he had to take a breath as spots were forming in his eyes. Shielding his eyes, he looked far out to sea and couldn't see a single dorsal fin.

Then he realized that there was only one dragon left in the sky: Ruth! His white hide unmistakable against the blue of sky!

He was motionless for so long Readis began to wonder what had happened to him. He remained, in that vigil, when Unclemi, himself at the wheel of his ship, turned to port and they began their journey homeward. The figure of Ruth dwindled finally or maybe the white dragon had ended his sky-borne post. Readis thought that was the most sad of all he had witnessed today.

The dolphins didn't return until the Fair Winds had reached her home waters.

Three days after that funeral, T'lion arrived to take the students to Landing. They weren't taken to the Admin building as Readis had half expected. He was sort of disappointed to find that the students had their own building, three over from Admin, where a large crowd of young people had gathered. At the appointed hour, a Master appeared at the main door and, in a clear, carrying voice, announced which rooms were a.s.signed to which cla.s.s. When the older students had entered the building, he motioned for those remaining outside to approach him.

"Well, now, so you're the ones starting with us this term,' he said, letting his gaze range over them. "I am Master Samvel, head of this school and you will be known as Cla.s.s 21, since this is the twenty-first year of the Present Pa.s.s. Not very original, I fear, but that designation will identify you to us and you will listen for any messages addressed to the cla.s.s in general. I shall learn to identify you each by name over the next few days.

Meanwhile, I bid you welcome and if you'll all file into room D, we can begin orientation.

Thus began what Readis later found was called the Transition Phase. He was an integral part of it.

Chapter Ten.

hree Turns later, four hundred students were living in dormitories at Landing and pursuing their courses, of h a variety were now offered. When generators were established in other major Holds, additional schools were set up, ranging from primary lessons to retraining. At Harper Hall, Master Harper Sebell inaugurated a totally new course for training apprentices, and musicianship was no longer the dominant concern of the Hall. He was only able to implement the new form because Master Robinton had proposed it to the Masters of the Hall before his death. It had not been acceptable at its initial airing but, afterwards, Sebell and Menolly watched, bemused, while the obdurate older Masters insisted on adopting the program. If Menolly's reception of that reversal was bitter, Sebell held on to the advantage and pressed forward, working all the hours of the day to get every phase of Master Robinton's educational plan into operation.

With Fandarel and Oldive insisting, the Smith and Healer Crafts made it compulsory for Masters to attend courses which improved their skills and explained new craft applications of Aivas' knowledge. After the success of the Red Star mission, Master Fandarel had less trouble getting his Masters to embrace the technology. He was also attempting to produce the radio instrument which Aivas had suggested as a reliable means of communication between distant places. Materials to construct the transistors required were obtainable in quant.i.ty on Pern Master Oldive was not as fortunate, facing such rebellion from older healers that he concentrated on imparting the Aivas' techniques and methods to new and unprejudiced apprentice minds. Although he could prove the healers could now save many from desperate suffering and improve the quality of life for other patients by the discreet use of surgical remedies, Masters in his craft balked at using such methods, to the detriment of patient health and longevity. To Oldive, that was a craft failure that could not be allowed to continue. Where he could, and, oddly enough, his intrusion worked best with those who had the least training and were desperate to relieve the suffering of their patients, he introduced new procedures.

The transition in the Healer Hall was sporadic.

After the initial experiment with the dolphins and a reciprocal service in removing any bloodfish, Oldive had asked for volunteers to work more closely with the discerning mammals.

Curran had been only too happy to permit the building of a small Healer cothold at Fort Sea Hold. A float was rigged at the end of the pier so that patients could be lowered into the water for the dolphins to use their sonar capability on them. There were similar facilities at three other seaside locations: Ista, Igen Nerat and Monaco Bay, or rather, the Eastern Weyr.

Aivas had spent much time with Master Oldive and his more receptive masters and journeymen. Though he had made it clear that Pern did not have certain requisites to bring medicine up to the level the Ancients had practised, many innovations would improve the Hall. The dolphins were an effective alternative for the Ancients' X-ray machine and other scanning devices, an invaluable exploratory device for healers.

There was one major drawback to the dolphins' ability to perceive abnormalities in the humans they examined: they could not tell the healers exactly what the growth or lump was, nor how to treat it: only that it was inside a body and shouldn't be there.

Nevertheless, their sonar readings gave healers more knowledge of the irregularities that could not be seen or palpated.

Master Oldive often had the notion that there had been a great many such devices which Aivas did not even mention to him and he sighed over those omissions and then went on, as healers had for centuries, making do with what was to hand and had proved helpful.

Aivas had been most complimentary in general about the Healer Craft which had pleased even the hide-bound members.

Aivas made special mention of the medicines that were in common use as efficacious, especially the numbweed derivatives which apparently had no side-effects as artificial compounds were apt to produce.

Once the wind machines had been installed on Fort Hold fire-heights, a terminal unit was installed in Oldive's rooms at the Harper Hall and two more dominated cla.s.srooms. Lord Holder Groghe had tried his not insignificant best to get one for Fort Hold but until the Smith Craft, or the new Computer Craft could duplicate the components, distribution was restricted to those disseminating information.

The Landing students did not study all the day long as Master Samvel was well aware that youngsters required physical exercise as well as mental. Many old games were annotated in the Aivas files and some of those Samvel revived: baseball, soccer, and polo, a sport in which Readis was to become quite proficient: as he was in the water sports when they started using the pond below the landing field. Readis suspected that Master Samvel emphasized the water sports in deference to his infirmity but he thought it made sense that people should learn how to swim when so many long journeys were made on the seas.

Master Samvel also gained permission from Benden Weyr, and a half wing of weyrling dragons, to take Cla.s.s 21 to Honshu, to see the incredible artefacts left by the Ancients in the mountain eyrie, not the least of which were the incredible murals that decorated the walls. They could see and touch the machines that the Ancients had left behind them. Kami was awestruck by the paintings while Pardure found the old sled they had all seen the devices in action from tapes of that period of Pernese history - the big looms, the finely crafted tools to be of more interest. Readis found the view from the Hall to be fascinating - the vista of endless mountains and valleys, a sense of the breadth of the land ma.s.s of this Southern Continent which was scarcely explored.

F'lessan, rider of bronze Golanth and only son of F'lar and Lessa, made this place what he called his "Weyrhold'. As he explained to the students, this unique historical spot should be available to any who wished to visit it - to see the magnificent murals that decorated the main hall walls. He had appointed himself the caretaker and spent more of his free time here than at Benden Weyr. The Weyrhold had a complement of holders, herding and experimenting with grain crops and vegetables in areas which had once, clearly, been fields, walled by stones set in place centuries before.

"You're Readis, aren't you?" F'lessan said, joining Readis on the bench placed on the upper terrace where the best view of valley could be had. The other students were clambering about the terraces below which Readis didn't care to do. "I asked Master Samvel to point you out. I knew your mother." He leaned back against the cliff wall. "She was at Benden Weyr for a while, you know, before hearing dragons got too much for her. K'van, who's now Weryleader at Southern, was one of the weyrlings in my wing and they were very close before Lessa sent her down to Benden Hold." He gazed out over the view for a few moments. "So, have you decided what to study at Landing?"

"Oh, we're just getting general stuff right now,' Readis said, "what Master Samvel calls "preparatory" courses. There's so much to learn." Sometimes the sheer volume and complexity of the knowledge available at Landing overwhelmed Readis.

it was daunting to know how much he didn't know. "Master Samvel says he's learning more all the time himself.

F'lessan grinned down at him. "Samvel's the type of person who'll never stop learning."

"My head aches sometimes,' Readis admitted shyly.

"Mine would, too,' F'lessan agreed. "I was never a good student. Even Master Robinton gave up on me."

Readis gave him a quick glance of surprise.

"You had Master Robinton as a teacher?"

F'lessan's snort was self-deprecating. "I was in the room all right but I didn't pay much attention." He grinned. "I was too enamored with being Golanth's rider at the time, I think.

Jaxom, Menolly, and Benelek were the real students."

"Master Benelek of the Smith Craft? The one who's keeping the Aivas machinery running?"

"The very one." Then F'lessan cast a look at the awed expression of the boy. "Who knows where some of your study mates may end up? Where you yourself will."

"Oh, I know where I'll end up,' Readis said. "I'm to be Paradise River Holder." He flicked a finger at his right leg.

"I'm to learn so much that even this won't keep me from being confirmed. "Your father's a strong, healthy man. You might have to wait a long time to accede. What're you going to do with all that time in between?"

Readis had thought about that. During his initial Turns at Landing, he realized that he had absorbed a great deal of Hold management from following his father about and hearing him give orders. Managing the Hold would be easy.

"I'd like to be a dolphineer."

"A what? Oh, yes, you've been talking to the creatures, haven't you?"

"There aren't any dolphineers, not like the Ancients had and the dolphins are very helpful, you know. To the Fish Craft Hall and the healers. But we just sort of call them when we want them. We don't do much for them apart from pry off a bloodfish now and then . . Readis paused, not wanting to appear to belittle the delphinic accomplishment but he had to be truthful to the dragonrider, "but nothing at all like the great work they did exploring the oceans and coastlines."

As I understand it, the coastline's always changing. Charts will need to be updated, won't they? Are you studying cartography?"

"Not as much as I'd like. I'm good at the maths but you also need special instruments to do a proper job."

"I understand that Master Fandarel is making those instruments since everyone seems to want a chunk of the Southern Continent." F'lessan chuckled.

"Don't you dragonriders get the first choice?"

"Where'd you hear that'?" F'lessan shot the lad an appraising look.

"Oh, and Readis shrugged, "you hear lots of things at Landing."

"I'll just bet you do,' and F'lessan snorted. "Have you accessed the tapes on dolphins in the Library?"

"I did that the first term I was here,' Readis said, grinning.

Then he went through some of the hand signals that dolphineers had used and F'lessan's eyes widened respectfully. "That's how dolphineers gave directions to the dolphins underwater. They still know them. The dolphins, I mean.

"And with you living right on Paradise River and the sea, you must make good use of them." Readis mumbled a noncommittal answer. This was not the time, nor the person, to confide home problems too. Oblivious to the boy's hesitation, F'lessan went on, "You might even start up your own Craft Hall. That's what Benelek did, you know, by learning all he could about Aivas' terminals."

"He did?"

"He did!" Then F'lessan gave Readis a mischievous grin.

"Right now, you and all the other students at Landing have a brilliant chance to make sure that Pern becomes what the Ancients wanted it to be before Thread interrupted their progress." F'lessan gestured behind him, to the murals. "The sum total of their knowledge and their overview of this planet is available to us. It's up to us, and you, as the next generation, to be sure we pick up the plan where they left off and see that Pern becomes the planet they envisioned. That's what must be done if Pern is to be what it could be. D'you see that? That's what Master Robinton wanted. It's what my parents want. But not all the Holders or Master Craftsmen. They're still hanging back with what's comfortable and familiar." He narrowed his eyes slightly to a.s.sess the impact of his words on his audience.

"It's going to be difficult, the next twenty-odd Turns, to set in place what Pern will be now that Thread has stopped."

"But it hasn't, has it?"

F'lessan gave him a quick look and grinned. "But it will."

"Were you . . . " Readis began tentatively, "one of the dragonriders who took the engines to the Red Star?"

F'lessan nodded. "Golanth and I."

Readis' jaw dropped in awe.

"All in a day's work for a dragonrider,' F'lessan said, dismissing the feat in his usual light manner.

On the top of the weyrhold, Golanth lifted his head and uttered a welcoming bugle.

"Ah, your conveyancers arrive,' F'lessan said, standing up, though Readis could see nothing but empty sky in front of them. "Think about what I said, Readis, about the dolphins and about what Pern could be."

Readis nodded, eyes front. Of course, Golanth, being a bronze, would know when dragons were arriving, so Readis kept staring and was rewarded by the thrilling sight that always made his heart pound faster: the abrupt emergence of a half wing of dragons. They were so beautiful. But not for everyone. Dolphins now, they weren't so restricted. Anyone could get to know a dolphin. He could be a dolphineer and a Holder. Form a new Craft Hall? That did appeal to Readis and he turned over that possibility. Of course, his mother would have an attack if he even whispered of his interest in the dolphins around her. She persisted in believing that it was the dolphins who had put his life at risk when it was the other way round. His father might understand, especially now that the dolphins had been shown to be useful in so many ways, guarding the coastline and warning them of bad squalls and good fishing. Certainly mastering another Craft would only show the Lord Holders that Readis, son of Jayge and Aramina, was that much more capable of managing an important Southern Hold like Paradise.

"Thank you, F'lessan,' he said.

"For what?" the bronze rider asked, smiling down at the boy.

Suddenly Readis went shy and covered it by waving his arm about to indicate the weyrhold. "For what you just said."

F'lessan grinned and placed his finger beside his nose, indicating secrecy. "Think about it, lad. We dragonriders are, I a.s.sure you.

Before Readis could ask him what that cryptic comment meant, F'lessan had walked off to find Master Samvel.

Back at school, when he had some free time to use one of the keyboards, Readis tried to find out exactly what the Ancients had meant Pern to be, before Thread ruined their plans. Eventually, he found the Charter in LAWS and that gave him a good deal to mull over. He wished he could talk to F'lessan again. By deft questioning, he learned that the son of F'lar and Lessa was considered a competent and much trusted wing leader but, until he had discovered Honshu Weyrhold, had not been given to much serious thinking or behavior. That made Readis give more weight to what the bronze rider had said that day.

Of course, the dragons were not mentioned in the Charter since they hadn't been created. Nor in any other file on LAWS or GOVERNMENT or VETERINARY or FARMING. They were listed in BIOGENETICS, though Readis couldn't understand half the words and gave up trying to figure out what the cryptic words in the lab notes meant.

Nevertheless, in twenty Turns or so, Thread would stop falling on Pern and would never come back to rain on the planet. What would dragonriders do then? Surely there had to be something special. Readis gave a shudder. Pern without its dragons would be unthinkable. He was awed by the ingenuity which had resulted in dragons. He'd had enough biology to understand the concept of biogenesis even if no-one on Pern now could possibly perform it. So what would dragons do when Thread was gone? He fretted over that question for quite a few weeks of that school term. Dragons did so many things that didn't have to do with fighting Thread. They conveyed people, and often these days, materials that would take days to be transferred by cart or ship. Well, the blues and greens did, and occasionally the browns and the younger bronzes before they started flying Thread. For adult dragons to do so was somewhat demeaning. He couldn't imagine a queen lugging things from one Hold or Hall to another.