Read The Renegades of Pern for Free Online

of one valley all your born days, and never hearing a new way of speaking or a new way of doing. Keeps the brain blood circulating; shifts ideas and opens eyes and hearts.
    “You’re old enough to know how welcome we are at every hold the train stops at. You worked along with us at Vesta River Hold, extending their upper story, so you know we’re not lazy folk. Now, hold your head up proud. You’ve a good Bloodright. And don’t let me catch you scrapping again because someone teases you into it. Fight for a good reason, not such a damfool prideful reason. Now, you’ve taken your punishment. Get to your bedroll.”
    He had been only a kid then, but now he was nearly a man and had learned to ignore silly taunts. That had not stopped him from using his fists and his naturally agile body, but he had learned which fights to get into, and how to protect himself well enough to avoid the too visible marks of a brawl. And pride in his Bloodline gave him an air of confidence that only a real fool would challenge. Jayge liked the kind of life his family led: never staying long enough in one place to grow weary of it. There was always something new to see, new, friends to make, old ones to reencounter, and, for the time being, races to be won on Fairex.
    The trail turned abruptly south, skirting a granite outcropping and affording a wide view of the other shore and the low foothills that would culminate in the immense Red Butte. Suddenly Jayge was conscious of the odd sky to the east, a lowering, threatening gray. He had seen plenty of bad weather in his ten Turns, but never something like that. Glancing toward his father, he saw that Crenden had also noted the strange sky, slowing his mount’s walk to study the grayness.
    Suddenly Readis, Jayge’s youngest uncle, came tearing up from the rear, shouting at Crenden and pointing to the cloud. “That came up sudden, Cren. It’s like no weather I’ve ever seen before,” Readis cried. His mount circled Crenden’s as both men scanned the horizon.
    “Looks like a local storm,” Crenden said, marking the discernible edges of the cloud.
    Jayge had joined his father by then, and the first wagon was slowing, but Crenden waved them on down the track.
    “Lookit!” Jayge’s arm shot up, but Crenden and Readis had also seen the flashes of fire that proceeded in bursts along the edge of the cloud. “Lightning?” He was unsure himself, for he had never seen sparks that flared and remained airborne like that. Lightning always connected with the surface!
    “That’s not lightning,” Crenden said. Jayge saw the color drain out of his father’s face, and his runner began jigging under him, snorting with fear. “And it’s been awful still. Not a single wherry or snake around.”
    “What is it, Cren?” His brother’s uncertainty was making Readis nervous.
    “They warned us. They did warn us!” Crenden hauled his runner up on its hindquarters, yelling at the top of his lungs and gesturing with his head for Readis to get to the rear.
“Get moving! Get ’em rolling! Challer, whip ’em up. Get that rig moving!”
He kept turning his mount, his eyes scanning the wooded hillside. “Jayge, get down the track. See if there’re any ledges we can shelter under. We’ve got to find some shelter. if even half of what they say about Thread is really true . . . we sure the flaming hell can’t stay out here in the open!”
    “Couldn’t the lighter wagons make it back to the Hold?” Readis asked. “Borel’s team’s fast. Dump everything. Put the children in it and go like hell!”
    Crenden groaned, shaking his head. “We’re hours down the track. If I’d believed the message . . .” He pounded his saddle horn with his clenched fist. “Shelter. We’ve got to find shelter. Go, Jayge. See if there’s any shelter at all.”
    “Then timber, Cren, slanted against the wagon . . .” Readis suggested, his mount sliding about the track and narrowly missing the edge overhanging