As Menolly uncovers intrigue, Piemur discovers the rhythm of adventure in the third book in the Harper Hall trilogy, set within science fiction legend Anne McCaffrey’s beloved and bestselling Dragonriders of Pern series. As Menolly navigates her way as the first journeywoman Harper in the history of Pern, fellow student Piemur is asked to leave Harper Hall. Secretly, Piemur is drafted by Masterharper Robinton to become a dragonrider—and he will soon embark on a dangerous mission to the Southern Hold. Anne Inez McCaffrey (1926–2011) was an American-born Irish writer, best known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. Early in McCaffrey’s forty-six-year career as a writer, she became the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award. Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science fiction books to appear on the New York Times bestseller list. In 1999, she was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, honoring her lifetime contribution to writing for teens. In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its twenty-second Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006. In May 2005, Brandon Sanderson published his first novel, Elantris , followed by the Mistborn trilogy, its follow-up The Alloy of Law , Warbreaker , and The Way of Kings , the first in a projected ten-volume series called The Stormlight Archive. The fifth book in that series, Wind and Truth was an immediate #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller. In 2022, Sanderson broke Kickstarter records by raising over $40 million to self-publish four "Secret Project” novels. Brandon won the Hugo Award in 2013 for his novella “The Emperor’s Soul”, and the David Gemmell Legend Award. His books have hit the New York Times Best Seller list twenty-five times and have been published in forty languages. At the end of each year, thousands of Sanderson’s fans gather at his Dragonsteel Nexus convention to celebrate his stories and to get a first glimpse of what Brandon will be writing next. Visit his website for behind-the-scenes information on all his books at BrandonSanderson.com. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 The rumble-thud-boom of the big drums answering a message from the east roused Piemur. In his five Turns at the Harper Craft Hall, he had never become accustomed to that bone-throbbing noise. Perhaps, he thought, sleepily turning over, if the drums beat every dawn, or in the same sequence, he’d get accustomed enough to sleep through it. But he doubted that. He was naturally a light sleeper, a talent picked up when he’d been a herder’s boy and had to keep an ear awake for night alarms among the runner beasts. The facility had often been to his advantage since the other apprentices in his dormitory couldn’t sneak up on him with vengeance in mind. And he was often awakened by discreet, dragon-borne visitors coming to see the Masterharper of Pern, or the arrivals and departures of Master Robinton himself, for he was surely one of the most important men on Pern; almost as influential as F’lar and Lessa, the Weyrleaders of Benden. Occasionally, too, on warm summer nights, when the shutters of the main hall were thrown back, the masters and journeymen assuming all the apprentices slept, he’d hear fascinating and uninhibited talk drifting on the night air. A small fellow like himself had to keep ahead of everyone else, and listening often showed him how. As he tried to get back to sleep for just a little longer in the gray dawn, the drum sequence echoed in his mind. The message had originated from Ista Hold’s harper: he had caught the identifying signature. He couldn’t be sure of the rest of the message: something about a ship. Maybe he ought to learn message-drum beats. Not that they came in with such frequency now that more and more people owned little fire lizards to take messages round and about Pern. He wondered when he’d get his hands on a fire lizard egg. Menolly had promised him one when her queen, Beauty, mated. A nice thought on her part, Piemur reflected, realistically aware that Menolly might not be able to distribute Beauty’s eggs as she wished. Master Robinton would want them placed to the Harper Hall’s advantage. And Piemur couldn’t fault Master Robinton. One day, though, he’d have his fire lizard. A queen, or, at least, a bronze. Piemur folded his hands behind his head, musing on such a delightful prospect. From having helped Menolly feed her nine, he knew a fair bit about them now. More than some people who had fire lizards, the same people who’d been claiming for Turns that fire lizards were boy’s sun-dreams. That is, until F’nor, brown Canth’s rider, had Impressed a little queen on a beach in the southern continent. Then Menolly, halfway across Pern, had saved a fire lizard queen’s eggs from being drowned in the unusually high tides of that