The Shunned are criminals condemned to a life of wandering and hardship. Their children share their punishment. Tenim is a child of the Shunned and has been stealing coal from Camp Natalon, aided by a dishonest miner, Tarik. Tenim soon realizes he can make more money by stealing firestone, the volatile mineral that enables the dragons of Pern to burn Thread out of the sky. Tenim doesn’t care what he has to do, or who he has to kill, in order to corner the market.
When the last known firestone mine explodes in flames, a desperate race begins to find a new deposit of the deadly but essential mineral, for without it there can be no defence against Thread. But Tenim has a murderous plan to turn the tragedy to his own advantage, and only the tracker Pellar, Halla - another child of the Shunned - and Tarik’s son Cristov, determined to make amends for his father’s greed, can stop him and ensure that there will be a future for all of Pern.
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