The Erroneous Eggs Chapter 9

The next step in the dragons' progress was learning to chew firestone.

"But we don't need to do that!" Sinder exclaimed. "Our dragons can make fire without firestone."

"All of your dragons except one," F'nor reminded them. "Temerairth still can't do it, so he needs to try this. As for the rest of you, it's true that your dragons don't need firestone to make fire. But I need them to try it so I can report to F'lar that they've tried it. It's a key part of every dragon's maturation process, and he'll want to know that we've made the attempt, whether it's strictly necessary or not."

The attempt did not go well. All of them except Falkorth and Toothleth began to bite down on the soft rock, and refused to finish biting, for fear that they would break a tooth. It was a reasonable fear; their teeth were long, thin, and sharp, not well suited for heavy chewing. Falkorth had human-like molars in the back of his mouth, and Toothleth had stubby cone-shaped teeth. They were able to chew firestone and break it down. But they could not bring themselves to swallow it.

This is not good for luck dragons, Falkorth protested.

I would rather eat a snakefish, Toothleth agreed.

L'rance tried to encourage his dragon to try again. "If you can't make fire, then you can't fight Thread," he urged him.

I am sorry. I cannot do this. If my teeth break, I will be unable to eat anything.

L'rance turned to F'nor in despair. "Is there anything else we can do? Can I break up the firestone with a hammer so he can swallow it?"

"You can try," F'nor said dubiously. L'rance spent fifteen minutes smashing a chunk of firestone into sand-sized particles, then offered it to his dragon. Temerairth flicked out his tongue to taste the stuff, and sneezed violently, scattering the firestone-sand across the landscape.

Thank you for trying, but that will not work. It is still inedible to me.

"I'm sorry, L'rance," F'nor said sympathetically. "It looks like your dragon is not going to be a Thread-fighter."

"But what else can he be?" L'rance begged him. F'nor had no answer.

o

"Dragon riders, gather around me," F'nor called. "We're going to have a serious discussion about fighting Thread."

The seven riders were all ears. The only reason Pern had dragons and dragon riders and Weyrs was to fight Thread. To the riders, it was their lifelong calling. To the dragons, it was their reason for being. They gathered in a semicircle around their Weyrlingmaster.

"In every other fighting wing on Pern," he began, "there's an established way to fight Thread. The bronzes and the browns fight steadily through an entire Threadfall, from beginning to end. The greens and the blues fight from the leading edge to about halfway through, where the Fall is thickest. They lack the stamina to fight all the way through, but that's okay, because the first half of a Fall is when we need numbers. It's also when we need the smaller dragons' agility the most, because the leading edge is the most dangerous. Most Wingleaders will save a few blues and greens to join the battle halfway through, to make up for the tired blues and greens who are dropping out. Every Weyrleader, Wingleader, and Wingsecond knows these things.

"But those standard, tried-and-true, battle-tested rules aren't going to work with your dragons. We have to make up some new rules for you, and find ways to test them without risking your lives in an actual Threadfall.

"It's my instinct to say that Temerairth is going to be the equivalent of a bronze, even though he is now bigger than any bronze dragon on Pern. He's a powerful flier who can stay in the air for hours, and his ability to hover in place will help him avoid Thread that falls right in front of him. The trouble with that idea is that he can't breathe fire. I don't know what role, if any, a non-fire-breathing dragon can play in fighting Thread.

"Smaugth and Puffth are the browns in this training wing. They aren't as powerful as Temerairth, but they're still very strong and they've got good, hot fire, especially Smaugth. I see no problems there.

"Falkorth is an anomaly, even in this wing. He can fly forever, his fire is a bit short-ranged but very hot, and if he's as lucky as he says he is, then Thread will probably never land on him. The problem with Falkorth is that he can't dodge sideways very well, like other dragons can do. If Thread is coming down straight at him, all he can do to dodge it is to speed up or slow down. Those are poor options, and I'm not convinced that he can make up for them with nothing but luck. Maybe he can do the kind of work that the queen's wing does.

"Saphirath falls somewhere between a blue and a brown, in terms of Thread-fighting. I see no problems with her, except for her desire to be the best and the fastest. If she can't learn to stay in her place in a formation, she will be ineffective, and she may cause problems for other dragons as well. Arigon, it will be your job to work with her on that." Arigon nodded.

"Then we come to Toothleth," F'nor continued. "He's got the nimbleness of a green, the endurance of a brown... and a fire that I don't know what to do with. Those firebolts of his will be wonderful for tearing clumps of Thread apart from a safe distance, but if there aren't any clumps, I'm not sure how he can flame effectively."

"He can flame without shooting firebolts," H'cup said earnestly.

"He can?" F'nor asked. "Why haven't you told me about this before?"

"I thought you knew about it," H'cup answered. "Whenever he lies down for a nap, he flames the ground around him to kill insects and scare tunnel-snakes away. Didn't you ever see him do that?"

"Somehow, I've never noticed that," F'nor admitted. "Can he do it for me now?"

H'cup sent a mental message to his dragon, who was napping about fifty feet away. The black dragon rose and turned in a circle. He blasted a hot blue jet of flame out of his mouth, like Falkorth's fire but very short-ranged, onto the ground around him. Then he lay down and went back to sleep.

"Okay, that's good to know," F'nor decided. "He can't burn Thread from a distance with that kind of fire, but he can protect himself and his rider at point-blank range. That could be important.

"Finally, there's Spyroth. He's got very good fire for taking out Thread... but he can't fly and his rider can't ride him."

"He can glide," Sinder piped up.

"Yes, and that's better than nothing when fighting Thread," F'nor nodded. "But what happens when he runs out of altitude?"

L'rance raised his hand. "He's been riding on Temerairth whenever we go on long flights. What if we made that part of our battle plan?"

"What do you mean?" F'nor asked.

"What if Spyroth rode Temerairth into battle at high altitude?" L'rance suggested. "He can jump off when we're close to Thread, and make a series of gliding attacks, either circling or going back and forth."

"I get it!" Sinder cut in. "When he's running out of airspace, Temerairth can fly down, collect him, and take him back up for another series of glide attacks!"

"A plan like that would also give Temerairth a role to play in fighting Thread, even though he can't breathe fire," L'rance finished. "Sinder can ride behind me on Temerairth so she can see what her dragon is doing, and offer him guidance."

"Would your dragon do that for me?" Sinder looked very grateful.

"He likes you, and I know he'll do anything to help fight Thread."

"Two dragons, one doing the flying and the other doing the flaming," F'nor mused. "Two dragons doing the work of one... it's not the best idea I've ever heard."

"It's better than two dragons doing the work of none, isn't it?" H'cup commented.

"True," F'nor admitted. "There could be problems if a dragon that big keeps breaking formation to collect Spyroth. I suppose we can try it and see if it works."

"But it all depends on our dragons' ability to go between, right?" Arigon asked.

"Oh, you thought of that, did you?" F'nor grinned. "Well, guess what we're going to try after lunch!" All of them were overcome with excitement and fear in varying combinations. They had all gone between on other people's dragons in the past. But doing it themselves, on their own dragons? That wasn't the same thing at all.

After lunch, they strapped themselves onto their dragons, taking more care than usual, and took to the sky. Canth led them up to the Star Stones.

"Memorize this sight," F'nor ordered them. "Then, once you're sure you've got it, memorize it again. You are going to visualize this sight and give that mental picture to your dragons. Your dragons will take you where you're picturing. No two Weyrs have their Star Stones laid out in exactly the same way, so you'll never go to the wrong Weyr by mistake.

"I've already explained the basics of going between in your classroom lessons, to the point where you're probably sick of hearing about them. But let me say this one more time: do not try to go between without giving your dragon a clear picture of where you want him to go! Dragons are very literal-minded. They need that clear picture. If you get lazy and just tell him, 'Take us home,' without any kind of a picture, no one knows where you'll wind up. But it almost certainly won't be where you wanted to go.

"Spend a few minutes learning this sight. Circle around it; memorize it from all angles. This is your first Pern landmark for going between. Study it as though your life depends on it... because it does." They studiously considered the Star Stones for several minutes.

"All right, class. If you haven't gotten it by now, then you never will. Follow me; we're going to fly about two miles away. From there, you will each make your first jump between." Canth flew easily; the others followed him in a loose gaggle instead of a neat formation. F'nor would speak to them about that later. For now, he knew they were desperately concentrating on the Star Stones, and he didn't want to distract them. Not before this, the most critical jump of their budding careers.

They arrived over a fallow field that belonged to a small Holder. "Circle around," F'nor ordered, and the dragons formed a ring formation. "It's time. There's nothing more I can teach you; you just have to do this. Your dragon knows how. Just give him the picture and hold it until you get there. L'rance! You go first."

He could see L'rance gulp. Temerairth rose slightly and left the circle. The young man closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath, braced himself, nodded, and...

...nothing happened.

He tried again. Temerairth looked puzzled. That in itself wasn't so bad, but the fact that he was still here was a terrible problem. F'nor had never heard of a dragon who had any difficulty in going between.

"L'rance, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," the young man admitted. "I don't think there's a problem with my picture. He just didn't go."

F'nor asked Canth to bespeak Temerairth. I see his mental picture perfectly, the big black dragon said with a hint of embarrassment. I do not know what to do with it.

You go between with it, Canth told him.

How do I do that? Temerairth asked, honestly baffled.

You simply do it. We dragons know how to go between, just as we know how to breathe and how to talk to our riders. I cannot explain it. We just go.

I do not know how.

F'nor had not foreseen this. "Okay, Temerairth, stand down. You'll get another chance later. B'ilbo, you try it." Temerairth rejoined the circle of dragons, visibly downcast.

I cannot breathe fire and I cannot go between. I am useless.

"Temerairth, that's not true!" his rider exclaimed passionately. "You're the biggest dragon on Pern! You've got the best eyesight of any dragon, and none of them can hover like you can. You're not useless!"

I cannot do anything to fight Thread. Of what use is a dragon who cannot fight Thread?

"You're mine, and I am yours," L'rance reminded him softly. "You are the center of my life. You are not useless."

Well, I suppose that much is true. The dragon's mood brightened slightly.

Meanwhile, Smaugth was rising above the circle while B'ilbo concentrated harder than he'd ever done in his entire life. "I'm ready," he finally said. "Go!"

Nothing happened.

"Are you sure you're ready?" F'nor inquired.

"I don't understand," B'ilbo said plaintively. "I did everything you said. I should have been at the Star Stones by now. Why am I here?"

"You should ask a philosopher that question, not a dragonrider," F'nor said dryly. "Canth?"

His dragon does not know how to go between, either.

"Okay, now I'm getting discouraged. J'par, can Puffth go between?"

The answer was "no." All seven of them tried, and all seven gave up in frustration. "Back to the Weyr" was all F'nor could say. They flew back in discouraged silence. The dragons landed in a tight circle, and the riders met in the middle.

"All right, I won't lie to you. This is really bad," F'nor began.

"If we can't go between, then we can't dodge Thread, right?" Sinder volunteered.

"It's worse than that," F'nor corrected her. "If you can't go between, then you can't get to where the Thread is falling. If you flew straight, then you would have to leave hours in advance of a Fall, and then your dragons would be worn-out and exhausted before they even started fighting Thread. I have to be honest here. Your careers as Thread-fighters are not looking good. And if you can't fight Thread, then the Weyr won't want to expend its resources on you. You'll have to find someplace else to live, and some other way to get enough food for your dragons."

"Ruth doesn't fight Thread very often," J'par pointed out. "Could we work out an arrangement like Lord Jaxom has with his dragon?"

"The key word there is 'Lord,'" F'nor replied gently. "Dragons are not cheap to maintain. They eat a lot, and if they get Threadscored, they need specialized medical care. The Weyrs willingly pay that price because that's what it takes to keep fighting dragons. They can't afford to keep dragons who don't give some return for their investment. Lord Jaxom can afford to pay that price because he's the Lord Holder of Ruatha. If you're not riding a fighting dragon, and if you don't have any wealthy Lord Holders in your immediate family, then your dragon is going to get very hungry."

They sat in silence for a few seconds. Spyroth padded over to them and nuzzled Sinder, who hugged his neck.

"Explain something to me," H'cup said suddenly. "The dragon goes between, and the human goes along for the ride, right?"

"That's how it's supposed to work, yes," F'nor answered.

"How does the human go along for the ride?"

F'nor shrugged. "He's touching his dragon, so I suppose he gets swept up in whatever causes the dragon to go between."

"But he isn't actually touching his dragon!" H'cup burst out. "He's covered in flying leathers from head to toe. There is no skin-to-skin contact."

"Where are you going with this, H'cup?" L'rance wondered.

"I had an idea," the thin young man answered. "It seems like you don't actually have to touch a dragon to go between with him, as long as you're kind of touching him. What if F'nor holds one end of a long rope, and the rest of us hold onto that rope along its middle? Then we're all kind of touching Canth, and if he goes between, he'll bring the rest of us with him."

"It sounds reasonable," Atrayou nodded.

"I don't know if dragon abilities work that way," Sinder said dubiously.

F'nor stood up straight. "I don't know either, but I'm willing to find out. Who wants to try it?" All seven riders raised their hands immediately.

"You realize, you might just be setting yourselves up for another disappointment," he warned them.

"What have we got to lose?" Arigon said simply.

"You still won't be able to make quick jumps between to get Thread off of you," F'nor said.

"Let's solve one problem at a time," H'cup said, and the others nodded. Atrayou ran to get a rope from the Weyr stores; he knew the storekeeper. They quickly prepared for flight, took off, and formed a circle.

"Take hold and pass it back," F'nor called as he threw the coil of rope to L'rance, after tying one end to a riding strap. L'rance caught the rope and passed it back to B'ilbo, who threw it to J'par, and so on back to H'cup on Toothleth. Spyroth was in his usual place on Temerairth's back. He stood on the rope with one foot, just to be sure he wouldn't be left behind.

J'par looked at the thin rope with concern. "Is this strong enough to hold us together when we go between?"

I see the string, Puffth said with amusement, but where is the sealing wax and the other fancy stuff?

"We're too close to the Star Stones to jump there," F'nor shouted. "We're going to jump to a popular landmark for dragons and their riders instead. It's called the Red Butte. You won't need a mental picture of it. If this works, you'll just go along for the ride. Canth and I know the way. He's going to give your dragons the picture, just to be sure. Take a deep breath!" They all did so. They waited for a moment, and then...

It was black. It was cold. It was silent. It was terrifying. Each of them could feel nothing except his dragon underneath him. Just when they thought they might scream, light and sound and warmth suddenly returned. They were circling a red butte in the middle of the Keroon desert.

"It worked!" F'nor exclaimed, but he was drowned out by the joyous trumpeting of seven dragons, and the shouts and cheers of seven riders. Some of them congratulated H'cup for his good idea, which clearly surprised him.

"Okay, gather around and listen closely!" he ordered. "I want to say this once. This is a guess on my part, but I think it's a good guess. When we are jumping like that, do not let go of the rope! If you do, I think it will be the same as if you gave your dragon an unclear picture. You'll be stranded between forever."

That left them silent for a few seconds.

"Maybe we should tie the rope to our riding straps, like you did," Sinder suggested.

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," F'nor replied. "One end of the line needs to be anchored for safety, but I don't want our dragons getting stuck together by a jammed knot when Thread is bearing down on us. Holding onto the rope by hand may not be as secure for you as tying a knot, but I think it will be safer."

"Holding the rope with heavy gloves makes me afraid I'll drop it when I'm between. I can't feel my fingers when I'm between." That was Arigon.

"If we wrap the rope around our gloved hands, then we can't drop it by accident," L'rance suggested.

"I think that's our best answer," F'nor nodded. "Take two turns of the rope around your hand, then toss it back to the next rider. We'll try that. Everyone get ready!" They did so. The return jump was still jarring, but their exultation when they reappeared near the Star Stones knew no bounds.

Maybe, just maybe, they would be permitted to fight Thread now.