Myrtis put her plump arms around Lythande, tenderly.
“Do you regret?”
The question was ambiguous. It might have meant: Do you regret that you did not kill the girl? Or even: Do you regret your oath and the secret you must bear to the last day? Lythande chose to answer the last.
“Regret? How can I regret? One day I shall fight against Chaos with all of my order; even at the side of Rabben, if he lives unmurdered as long as that. And that alone must justify my existence and my Secret. But now I must leave Sanctuary, and who knows when the chances of the world will bring me this way again? Kiss me farewell, my sister.”
Myrtis stood on tiptoe. Her lips met the lips of the magician.
“Until we meet again, Lythande. May She attend and guard you forever. Farewell, my beloved, my sister.”
Then the magician Lythande girded on her sword, and went silently and by unseen ways out of the city of Sanctuary, just as the dawn was breaking. And on her forehead the glow of the Blue Star was dimmed by the rising sun. Never once did she look back.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the following:
Sean Wallace at Prime Books for publishing this anthology, and his continuing support of my editorial career.
Gordon Van Gelder, who taught me the mysterious and magical Way of the Editor.
My former agent Jenny Rappaport, for helping me launch my anthology career. (Enjoy retirement!) And to my new agent, Joe Monti, for picking up where Jenny left off.
David Barr Kirtley and Wendy N. Wagner for their assistance wrangling the header notes. All the clever things in the header notes are all their work. Anything lame you came across is mine.
Rebecca McNulty, for her various and valuable interning assistance—reading, scanning, transcribing, proofing, doing most of the work but getting none of the credit as all good interns do.
My mom, for the usual reasons.
All of the other kindly folks who assisted me in some way during the editorial process: Christie Yant, Grady Hendrix, Moshe Siegel, Stacey Friedberg, Becky Sasala, Rebekah White, and to everyone else who helped out in some way that I neglected to mention (and to you folks, I apologize!). Thanks too to the folks who made reprint recommendations in my online recommendations database.
The NYC Geek Posse—consisting of Robert Bland, Desirina Boskovich, Christopher M. Cevasco, Douglas E. Cohen, Jordan Hamessley, Andrea Kail, and Matt London, (plus Dave Kirtley, who I mentioned above, and the NYCGP Auxiliary)—for giving me an excuse to come out of my editorial cave once in a while.
The readers and reviewers who loved my other anthologies, making it possible for me to do more.
And last, but certainly not least: a big thanks to all of the authors who appear in this anthology.
Acknowledgment is made for permission to publish the following:
“El Regalo” by Peter S. Beagle. © 2006 Peter S. Beagle. Originally published in The Line Between (Tachyon Publications, 2006). Reprinted by permission of the Avicenna Development Corporation.
“Love is the Spell That Casts Out Fear” by Desirina Boskovich. © 2010 by Desirina Boskovich.
“The Secret of the Blue Star” by Marion Zimmer Bradley. © 1979 by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Originally published in Thieves’ World, ed. Robert Lynn Asprin (Ace, 1979). Reprinted by permission of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust.
“Jamaica” by Orson Scott Card. © 2007 by Orson Scott Card. Originally published in Wizards, Inc., eds. Martin H. Greenberg & Loren L. Coleman (DAW, 2007). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Cerile and the Journeyer” by Adam-Troy Castro. © 1995 by Adam-Troy Castro. Originally published in 100 Wicked Little Witches, eds. Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert H. Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg (Sterling, 1995). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Trader” by Cinda Williams Chima. © 2010 by Cinda Williams Chima.
“John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner” by Susanna Clarke. © 2006 Susanna Clarke. Originally published in The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (Bloomsbury, 2006). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Feeding the Feral Children” by David Farland. © 2010 by David Farland.
“The Tiger by Its Tail” by C.C. Finlay. © 2010 by C.C. Finlay.
“The Sorcerer Minus” by Jeffrey Ford. © 2010 by Jeffrey Ford.
“The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria” by John R. Fultz. © 2010 by John R. Fultz.
“How to Sell the Ponti Bridge” by Neil Gaiman. © 1985 by Neil Gaiman. Originally published in Imagine #24, March 1985. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Street Wizard” by Simon R. Green. © 2010 by Simon R. Green.
“Endgame” by Lev Grossman. © 2010 by Lev Grossman. Originally published on Borders.com. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Ereshkigal Working” by Jonathan L. Howard. © 2010 by Jonathan L. Howard.
“The Orange-Tree Sacrifice” by Vylar Kaftan. © 2010 by Vylar Kaftan.
“Card Sharp” by Rajan Khanna. © 2010 by Rajan Khanna.
“Family Tree” by David Barr Kirtley. © 2010 by David Barr Kirtley.
“The Word of Unbinding” by Ursula K. Le Guin. © 1964, 1992 by Ursula K. Le Guin. First appeared in Fantastic, January 1964; from The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (Harper & Rowe, 1975); reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agents, the Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc.
“Too Fatal a Poison” by Krista Hoeppner Leahy. © 2010 by Krista Hoeppner Leahy.
“Counting the Shapes” by Yoon Ha Lee. © 2001 by Yoon Ha Lee. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2001. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Wizards of Perfil” by Kelly Link. © 2006 by Kelly Link. Originally published in Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Sharyn November (Firebird, 2006). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“In the Lost Lands” by George R. R. Martin. © 1982 by George R. R. Martin. Originally published in Amazons II, ed. by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (Daw 1982). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Go-Slow” by Nnedi Okorafor. © 2010 by Nnedi Okorafor.
“Mommy Issues of the Dead” by T.A. Pratt. © 2010 by T.A. Pratt.
“Winter Solstice” by Mike Resnick. © 1991 by Mike Resnick. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November, 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Wizard’s Apprentice” by Delia Sherman. © 2009 by Delia Sherman. Originally published in Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Fairy Tale, eds. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (Viking, 2009). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Robert Silverberg. © 2004 by Agberg, Ltd. Originally published in Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy, ed. Al Sarrantonio (ROC 2004). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“One-Click Banishment” by Jeremiah Tolbert. © 2010 by Jeremiah Tolbert.
“So Deep That the Bottom Could Not Be Seen” by Genevieve Valentine. © 2010 by Genevieve Valentine.
“The Secret of Calling Rabbits” by Wendy Wagner. © 2010 by Wendy Wagner.
“The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories” by Christie Yant. © 2010 by Christie Yant.
About the Editor
John Joseph Adams (www.johnjosephadams.com) is the best-selling editor of many anthologies, including Wastelands, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), The Living Dead 2, Seeds of Change, By Blood We Live, Federations, and The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Barnes & Noble.com named him “the reigning king of the anthology world,” and his books have been named to numerous best of the year lists. Future projects include The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Brave New Worlds, and The Book of Cthulhu.
John is also the fiction editor of the online science fiction magazine Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com). Prior to taking on that role, he worked for nearly nine years in the editorial department at The Magazine of Fant
asy & Science Fiction.
John is currently the co-host of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast and has published hundreds of interviews and other pieces of non-fiction. He lives in New Jersey.
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