Dragon's kin / McCaffrey, Anne

Lorana, a young dragonrider with a gift for healing and telepathy, rushes to find a cure when a mysterious fatal illness infects the dragons just when a deadly cycle of Threadfall is due, and realizes the answer lies with Wind Blossom, a geneticist whose mother created the dragons hundreds of years earlier.

After losing his family in a sudden tragedy, young Kindan takes his father's job in the mines and finds solace in his friendship with a mysterious girl and his training of a new watch-wher, a dragon-like guard creature, whose unique powers may prove to save an entire community from destruction.