Lorana looked at the object in her hand. It was some sort of case. The top was covered with a very old version of the Masterhealer’s mark. She turned it over and gasped as she saw that the bottom had her own Animal Healer mark carefully drawn on it.
There was another burst of cold air and a brown dragon appeared. I am Aloth, Lorana.
Oh, you’re beautiful, Lorana told the brown, who flapped his wings in pleasure.
An enormous burst of cold from between announced the arrival of the largest dragon ever seen at Benden Weyr.
I am Tolarth, the newest queen dragon of Pern told Lorana proudly.
“Open it,” Tullea said, her voice wavering with emotion.
Lorana looked up and was surprised to see tears rolling down Tullea’s cheeks.
“Please, you’ll see,” Tullea pressed.
Lorana opened it. She gasped and cried out loud. Kindan heard the noise and rushed to her side.
“Look!” she said, showing the case to Kindan. “See?”
Inside the case was a three-linked locket. Lorana lifted it out and opened it up. The middle link was made of Arith’s saddle star.
“Where? How?” Kindan asked in amazement.
Lorana didn’t hear him. The other two links in the locket had pictures in them. She looked at the first one-it was a small painting of a very ancient woman with a very compassionate face.
“Is that-is that Wind Blossom?” Kindan asked in awe. “And who’s this scarfaced man?”
Lorana turned to look at the second locket and cried out loud.
“What is it?” Kindan asked, wrapping an arm around her comfortingly.
“It’s Grenn!” Lorana cried, pointing to the small fire-lizard perched on the man’s shoulder, tears of joy streaming down her face. “That’s my fire-lizard! He lived! He made it back in time, and he lived!”
EPILOGUE
And the children shall lead you.
I’ve always felt that there was something missing,” Tieran mused to his companion.
“You are a romantic,” she said.
“Where to put it?” Tieran muttered to himself, searching the room. “Someplace not too obvious… ah! Here.” He put down the locket.
“What do you hope to gain with that?”
“I want her to know that we knew her pain. That we understood.”
“Tieran, whoever it is won’t be born for hundreds of Turns. We have no way of knowing that this will even work.”
“It’ll work,” Tieran said assuredly. “I know it.”
“How?” Emorra asked. “My love, sometimes I think you are too much of a dreamer.”
“Daddy!” A small boy’s voice called.
“We’ll be right there,” Tieran replied.
“Really, Tieran,” Emorra shook her head.
“Did you ever wonder how she touched your mother? Did you wonder why this clever one-” He stroked the fire-lizard affectionately. “-appeared? There was a bond.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“A familial bond. Whoever she is, she is one of our children’s children.”
Emorra pursed her lips and nodded. “I’ve always agreed with you on that, love.”
“Mommy!” the boy cried impatiently.
“We’ll be right there,” Emorra replied, cocking her head at Tieran and then in the direction of the boy.
Tieran smiled triumphantly at her as he caught her hand in his and they turned to go to their son. “And have you ever known one of us not to get our way in the end?”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is the first book written solely by someone else in Anne McCaffrey’s Pern universe. I would like to thank Ms. McCaffrey-“Thank you, Mum!”-for letting me do so. I was thrilled to get a smiley face from her on my outline, as well as all her encouragement and her bravery in letting someone else play in her very special sandbox.
The quality of that outline was dramatically improved by the comments of Michael Reaves, Brynne Chandler, and Jenna Scott.
I would also like to thank my sister, Georgeanne Kennedy, for her insightful comments and questions, and for her unfailing support in my efforts to write this novel.
This novel would not have happened at all without the encouragement, understanding, and keen insight of my editor, Shelly Shapiro, of Del Rey Books. She not only encouraged me when I needed it but also challenged me to stretch to greater heights-the true hallmark of a great editor.
While too many cooks may spoil the broth, it is amazing how many sets of eyes can gaze over the same mistakes-and miss them. I am very grateful to Judith Welsh, my editor at Transworld, for catching errors that no one else noticed.
I would also like to thank Don Maass of the Donald Maass Literary Agency for his steady support, keen insights, and quiet encouragement.
I would like to thank Harry and Marilyn Alm for their prompt replies to questions regarding Threadfalls and particularly recommend Harry’s Threadfall charts for anyone seriously interested in figuring out what goes where on Pern-at least when it comes to nasty stuff.
I am also indebted to Dr. Natascha Latenschlauger for her help in dealing with illnesses and genetic material, no matter which planet it comes from.
I want to thank my early readers, Sonia Orin Lyris, Angel Hanley, Harry and Marilyn Alm, and-of course-Anne McCaffrey (Mum) for all their comments, suggestions, and insights without which this book would not be.
Finally, I would like to sing the praises of my copy editor from Del Rey, Martha Trachtenberg, who caught or questioned countless errors in the original manuscript and whose songwriting knowledge made “Wind Blossom’s Song” vastly superior.
Any mistakes, errors, and omissions still found are all mine.
eISBN 0-345-48193-3