The Renegades of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

They were the misfits, the outcasts, the murderers without Hold or Crafthall. Some were resentful, some sought vengeance, but it was not until Thella, Lady Holder of Telga, began to weld them together into a terrifying and brilliantly evil clan that they became the Renegades of Pern. It was a time of great turmoil on the planet. The pass of the Red Star had brought a new terrible reign of Threadfall, and in the Southern Hold, Toric was carving out an enormous empire for himself from lands as yet uncharted. And as the times of trouble grew, so did the ravages of Thella and her band, turning from theft to murder to vicious and insane revenge.

Jayge Lilcamp, the young trader, was one of the first to fall foul of the renegades, and as he saw what Thella had done to his family and his wagon train he began to seek his own revenge, a revenge which grew into a determination to destroy the most evil woman on Pern.