Dragonriders of Pern 24 - Dragonsblood by McCaffrey Anne & McCaffrey Todd

Author:McCaffrey, Anne & McCaffrey, Todd [McCaffrey, Anne & McCaffrey, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780552152082
Publisher: CORGI BOOKS
Published: 2006-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Come down and join the celebration," Emorra called to the drummers on the

tower.

"We can't, we're on duty."

"Suit yourselves, then," she called back to them. She was drunk and she knew

it. She hadn't been drunk in--she couldn't remember how long. She must have

been drunk once before, or she wouldn't have recognized it now.

She turned back to the College, watching her feet to keep from stumbling.

Then she glanced over her shoulder at the tower behind her, realizing that the

voice that had answered her wasn't Tieran's. Where was he? She hadn't seen him

for a while. Emorra pursed her lips, wondering exactly why she cared.

The celebrants in the courtyard of the College had dispersed, some going back

to their rooms and others settling down for quieter revelries right there.

Emorra startled when her ears picked out Tieran's voice. He was in one of the

classrooms. She headed toward it.

Partway there, Emorra paused. She heard a woman's voice talking to him. Well,

maybe I should leave them alone, she thought sadly to herself. The voice spoke

again, passionately, and Emorra recognized it.

She charged into the room, yelling, "Just what do you think you're doing?

You're old enough to be hisgrand mother!"

Her agitation took her all the way into the room. Tieran was seated at one of

the tables. No one was seated in his lap. No one was muttering sweet nothings

into his ear.

Instead, Wind Blossom was in front of the chalkboard, scribbling genetic

coding sequences on it. Of course, Emorra thought to herself with slowly

dawning comprehension, I've never heard her use that toneunless she was

talking genetics.

Tieran and Wind Blossom were startled by her bold entrance. Wind Blossom

recovered more quickly, giving her daughter an inscrutable--even to

Emorra--look. Tieran just looked puzzled. The brown fire-lizard had leapt into

the air, but did not gobetween.

"I was explaining the sequencing differences between the dragons and the

fire-lizards," Wind Blossom told her daughter calmly. After a pause, she added

with only the slightest hint of a purr in her voice, "Were you enjoying the

end of Pass festivities?"

Emorra thought that over before responding. "I'm drunk," she declared.

"So I had gathered," Wind Blossom said frostily.

"What's it like?" Tieran asked, eyes wide with interest. "I've never been

drunk," he admitted. Hastily, he added, "Yet."

"I think it'll hurt in the morning," Emorra admitted, her face still red. Why

in the world would Iever have thought that my mother and Tieran were . . .

ardent about anything, Emorra berated herself. "Why worry about the

sequencing?" she asked, trying to sound normal.

"We're looking for common immune system limitations," Tieran explained.

Emorra blinked, thinking. "The infection?"

"I was hoping we could prove that it couldn't cross to dragons," Tieran said.

Emorra cocked her head, questioningly.

"We are still working on it," Wind Blossom added pointedly.

"It's the end of the Pass--haven't you got anything better to do?" Emorra

blurted. "Alcohol blunts inhibitions and slows reasoning," she remembered as

her brain processed the words her mouth had just uttered.

"Like what?" Wind Blossom asked.

"Like--like . . . well,you're too old!" Emorra said. Clasping her hand to her

head in frustration at her own stupidity, she turned around and stomped away.

"Alcohol reduces sexual function," Emorra recalled with infuriating clarity

as she strode away.

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