Dragonflight

A psychic sense of danger wakes the book’s protagonist, a kitchen drudge named Lessa. She felt a similar warning here in Ruatha Hold 10 years (or “Turns”) ago (1). She touches base with her only friend, the Hold’s ugly old watch-wher (a creature similar to dragons), and determines that the danger she senses is not imminent, nor does it stem from Ruatha’s usurper, Lord Fax. Lessa resigns herself to patience, a virtue acquired from years of plotting revenge against Fax. She knows only that danger might come from the northeast, but the east presents the more imminent threat. Overhead, the Red Star gleams. Lessa reassumes her disguise as an ugly maid and starts her workday.

The dragonman F’lar, his half-brother F’nor, and their squadron arrive at Fax’s primary Hold. Fax inherited one Hold, married into another, and has conquered five more, though traditionally each Hold should have its own ruler. F’lar notes that Fax has not properly maintained this Hold’s defenses. The firestone pits are empty, and greenery has overtaken the stone. He is determined, once his current task (the “Search”) is over, to hold a Council to “replace lethargy with industry” (5). The Hold’s inhabitants are terrified of the dragons, including F’lar’s bronze dragon Mnementh, though dragons almost never attack people.

F’lar determines Lord Fax to be as greedy, arrogant, and lascivious as the rumors claim. He tersely informs Fax that the previous Weyrwoman, the incompetent Jora, is dead, and a new queen dragon egg has been laid. F’lar pushes Fax for access to the Hold’s women, as Pern’s tradition of the Search demands. “The ancient respect for dragonmen as well as dragonkind,” F’lar thinks, “must be reinstalled in modern breasts” (9).

F’lar and F’nor notice that the Hold is better stocked than the dragonmen’s home (the Weyr), and that while Fax adheres to the letter of the ancient laws—he employs musicians (“harpers”), for example—he ignores their spirit. F’lar meets Fax’s heavily pregnant Ruathan wife Gemma, whom Fax clearly disdains, and his other women too, but he determines “[T]here [are] none here worthy of the Search” (13); the women are not physically fit and lack spirit. F’lar reflects on how Pern’s modern people neglect the old traditions—the Laws, the Records, and the ballads—which he is certain have purpose and significance.

F’lar and F’nor meet with Lytol (formerly L’tol) to aid their Search. Lytol was once a dragonman, but his dragon died in an accident, dealing him a critical psychic blow. Lytol encourages them to kill Fax, as the man is a tyrant who abuses women and will turn the other Holds’ Lords against the Weyr. F’lar and F’nor hope they might find a woman of powerful Blood in Ruatha Hold—Ruatha supplied many Weyrwomen in the past—but Lytol tells them Fax systematically eliminated the entire line. Fax, he reminds them, scoffs at the Teaching Ballads and forbids stories of the Threads and dragons. “The new generation,” he laments, “will grow up totally ignorant of duty, tradition, and precaution” (21). 

As F’lar and company approach Ruatha Hold, F’lar reflects on the main reasons that the Weyr is weak. First, the Holding Lords no longer respect dragonmen or think them necessary. They have steadily reduced their traditional tithes. Second, the dragonmen have been hamstrung by poor leadership, including the incompetent former Weyrwoman Jora and the current Weyrleader R’gul, whose isolationism and no-interference policy with the Holding Lords have allowed Fax to go on an unprecedented conquering spree. F’lar instructs his dragonmen to use a bit of firestone—a substance dragons chew to create fire—to burn foliage on the flight into Ruatha, both to rid the Hold of dangerous greenery and to remind people of the power of dragons.

F’lar was hopeful that the Search would end in Ruatha. He is dismayed to find Fax has almost completely ruined the Hold, smugly justifying his extortion of the rebellious Ruathans as within his rights as Lord. Tensions rise between the two men. Even F’lar’s generally empathic dragon Mnementh hates Fax. F’lar notices that Fax seems afraid of Ruatha for some reason. “There is a subtle strength in this valley” (27), he tells his half-brother F’nor.