He took up the binoculars-now required watchrider equipment-and focused carefully on the sparkles. They were like a shower; could they be coming from one place before disappearing? That wasn't what the Turn's End Ghosts looked like: they were pale and strung out across the sky. Furthermore, the Ghosts were much farther north, nearer the ice regions. He had an uneasy feeling.

H'nor rose from his comfortable position on the upper arm of his brown Ranneth, eyeglass still focused on the brilliant showers. There was another long one. Definitely not Ghosts. Burned too long.

What is it?Ranneth demanded, coming out of his doze. A brown of many Turns, he slept when and where he could, but his rider's alarm was palpable. He turned his head in the direction H'nor faced and was equally startled, rearing back on his haunches. It is fire but what could stay alight so high above Pern?

H'nor gulped. I don't know.

Sometimes metal fell from the sky, large enough to cause damage. Like the big hole at Circle Runner Station.

Knowing that the Dawn Sisters had been the ships that had brought the Ancients to Pern had not been easy for H'nor to assimilate. Learning about Aivas had also been unsettling. He was too old for such complications. He wanted no flamingthings falling down before he and Ranneth could retire to a warm and comfortable weyr on the Southern continent.

As watchrider, he did have a duty to sound an alarm for any unusual occurrence and this ranked in that category.

Tell Willerth,H'nor told Ranneth. The old brown rider was glad that the Weyrleadership of Telgar had changed recently, to a younger bronze rider, J'fery. Old R'mart had become quite difficult before he'd gone to the Southern Weyr for less onerous duties. Bedella and her queen, who hadn't risen to mate in three Turns, had gone with him. Tell Ramoth while you're at it. Benden's supposed to know.

I will also tell Tiroth at Cove Hold.

Yes, yes, tell them, too. They should know all about such things.

The watchdragon reared back on his haunches and bugled a warning, as bright sparks appeared almost directly overhead in the sky.

Since it was nearly dawn in Benden, a good number of weyrfolk already breakfasting in the Lower Cavern were startled by the bugled alert. It coincided with Ramoth giving Lessa Willerth's message from Telgar, so Lessa was on her feet, grabbing at F'lar's tunic to drag him with her. Everyone else present scrambled to the Bowl after the Weyrleaders to see what was happening.

"Those aren't Ghosts," Lessa cried, coming to a stop so abruptly that F'lar had to sidestep. She could see what had alarmed the watchdragon: long flaring ribbons in the sky, almost directly above Benden. One large burst startled everyone, as if some smaller piece had broken off the bigger ball.

"No, they aren't!" F'lar agreed, gazing up, his hands on his weyrmate's arms, rubbing them to warm her.

Willerth didn't say they were,Ramoth reminded her rider.

Then she added, surprised, Ruth says there is something above Ruatha that Jaxom doesn't think are Ghosts either.

By now every dragon in the Weyr was peering up at the manifestation, their eyes beginning to whirl with agitation, creating the effect of rings of vivid color around Benden's inner walls. F'nor and F'lessan joined their Weyrleaders, peering up at the phenomenon just as more flares burst from it.

"All the shooting arrows"-Lessa gestured with her hands-"seem to come from the same source."

"I'd like to know whatsource," F'lessan said, scrubbing at his thick hair, an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"You're the one who studied astronomy," F'lar remarked, turning his head slightly toward his son but not taking his eyes off the sprays of brilliant lights.

"Not something like that," F'lessan said. "Though it could be a meteor coming through the atmosphere. We do get them."

"Yes, Circle Runner Station never lets us forget!" F'nor murmured wryly.

"Do we have to worry about it falling on us?" Brekke asked, curling her hand over F'nor's arm.

"Shouldn't it be moving?" Lessa said, becoming a little nervous. "It seems to be hanging right over us."

"I'd say that's an illusion," F'lessan replied, trying to sound reassuring. He caught F'lar's cocked eyebrow and shrugged. "It'll probably disappear in a few moments. Though the Ghosts usually travel from west to east. Noticeably."

"They're also paler," Lessa said. "This one is getting brighter!" She shivered.

F'lar dropped his arms across her to provide more warmth in the wintry early morning light.

It is very high above us,Ramoth said, and itis getting brighter.She blinked the first protective lid across her eyes.

I agree. The winter Ghosts are higher still,bronze Mnementh added.

"Would the Yokosee it, do you think?" Lessa asked. "Or is it too far north for the sensors?"

Tiroth says that he takes four to Landing to see,Ramoth said, sounding surprised.

Lessa echoed that surprise when she repeated the message to the other riders grouped around her. "Well, Master Wansor certainly should be there, and that journeyman of his-what's his name?"

"Erragon," F'lessan said.

"Erragon, to see what the Yokoreports," Lessa finished.

"I'll go, too, for Benden's sake," F'lessan offered gallantly. "Sellie-" He caught the arm of his second son, Sellessan-technically he should call him S'lan, as the boy'd Impressed a brown two Turns ago-who had sneaked out to see what was causing the commotion. The boy was as curious as F'lessan had been as a youngster. "Run get my flying gear. First table on the left." The boy raced to obey.

"Erragon has that big telescope," F'nor said.

"He'd've been off watch at dawn," F'lessan said with a grimace. "Two hours ago at least."

"Wouldn't he have seen such a phenomenon?" Lessa asked, gesturing overhead. Just as it seemed the splashings were gone, a fresh burst exploded into the predawn sky. "It just couldn't appear out of nowhere, could it?"

"There have been reports of other such things," F'nor said, dismissively enough to reassure Brekke, who was shivering beside him. "Let's go back inside."

"It'll go away because it isn't being watched?" Brekke asked, regarding him with an affectionate smile, but she went with him.

"Well, I'll find out what Yokothinks it is," F'lessan said. Summoning Golanth from his ledge, he didn't take his eyes off the long ribbons in the sky as he shrugged into the riding gear S'lan had brought him and crammed on his helmet. "Thanks, son."

"It's not going to fall on the Weyr," S'lan asked, gulping nervously, "is it?"

"Mnementh says not." F'lar gave his grandson a reassuring look. "Go finish your breakfast, young S'lan."

Obediently the brown rider moved away.

"I'd like to see what Yokoreports, F'lar," F'lessan murmured. "It may just be skimming the atmosphere, which is what's causing all the bright trails."

"But you're not sure," Lessa said, craning her head around to look at her tall son's face.

"No, but there's a great deal about that I don't know," he admitted with one of his ingenuous smiles.

"I thought you were using those fancy new binoculars you got from Jancis," she said.

"So I am, Lessa, so I am," he agreed as Golanth dropped elegantly to the floor of the Bowl just beyond the riders, "but they're at Honshu! So we'll go to Landing, where I can learn what this is all about." With an agile leap, he vaulted to the back of his bronze.

Lessa blinked. "Oh! Talina's Arwith says that T'gellan is going to Landing, too."