"Ista, the fifth Weyr, is one of the most curiously constructed. Situated on the bay at the southwest corner of the Big Island, the black half volcano thrusts four fingers and a thumb into the tropical sky. The mountain must have been formed by an eruption that knocked the bay half off its caldera into the sea, letting lava flow in a gradual drop-off, which the pounding of the current has worn away into a plateau. For all its tiny size, Ista has a mind-boggling, maze like warren of narrow tunnels that double back and run into each other....The beach under Ista Weyr is sand that, when inspected, proves to be black diamond dust....Ista supplements the lack of dragonrider weyrs with 'forest weyrs,' cliffside dwellings on the outer face of the Bowl."