They discover Tremane, and find him to be more open-minded and reasonable than they had anticipated. Though Karal knows that Tremane is responsible for Ulrich’s death, he knows he must get past his hatred of the man for the good of Karse, Valdemar, and all of the Alliance. Despite shock and dismay from Selenay and Solaris when they discover what he has done, both rulers come to see that Karal is right. The Alliance adds a new member—Tremane’s Hardorn.
The Valdemaran artificers discover by sheer accident that a powerful magical force generated from the center of the concentric circle of the mage-storms would temporarily cancel the worst of their effects. The Shin’a’in envoy tells of the weapons of Urtho still buried beneath the remains of his Tower, which the Shin’a’in have guarded for centuries. Sejanes, one of Tremane’s Mages, uses his expertise with Portals to Gate a group to the ruins near k’Leshya Vale, and a hand-picked task force including Firesong, Karel, An’desha, the gryphons Treyvan and Hydona, the Companion Florian, and the Firecat Altra travel to the Tower, hoping to find a way to use Urtho’s own tools to create the counter-storm they need to buy them time to truly stop the Mage-storms. Working together, this unlikely group from different races, different cultures, and different lands has the fate of the world balanced in their hands.
1996
Storm Breaking
Still encamped at Urtho’s Tower after generating their counter-storm, the Allies from all over Velgarth are determined to come up with a permanent solution to the mage-storms, for they know that the deadly cycle will continue to build until it triggers a second Cataclysm unless someone can find a way to stop it. They feel that they, of all possible groups, have the best chance to do so, especially with the things they’ve found among the ruins of Urtho’s Tower.
While their friends are working on a way to stop the mage storms permanently, Darkwind and Elspeth travel to Hardorn as the official representatives of the Alliance to Tremane’s encampment at the town of Shonar. After getting to know and trust Tremane, they convince him to participate in an earthbinding ceremony that ties him to the land of Hardorn. When it becomes clear that Tremane has earth-sense to a profound degree and so would never be able to abuse the land or its citizens, the people of Hardorn declare him their king.
The secretive northern country of Iftel also sends a delegation to Tremane and the Alliance. To the shock of nearly everyone, it seems that Iftel is protected and closely watched by Vkandis, the same god that reigns over Karse. Equally interesting is the fact that the delegation from Iftel is a troop of gryphon-fighters, descended from a lost wing of the ancient Mage Urtho’s armies. Tashiketh, the leader of the troop, works with Elspeth, Darkwind, Tremane, and Solaris to try to shield important mage-nodes and Heartstones from the building mage-storms.
Back in the Eastern Empire, Emperor Charliss has learned of what has gone on in Hardorn, and has disowned Tremane. Now he names Tremane’s greatest enemy as Heir. The Emperor blames both Tremane and Valdemar for the collapse of the Empire during the mage-storms, and plans to use the last of his mage-power to destroy them both. And if he does so, adding the power he can release to the power of the mage-storms at their height might just destroy a good chunk of the world along with Valdemar. Strangely, it is Baron Melles’s character flaws—his ruthless self-interest and his superb assassin skills—rather than his strengths that enable him to avert that disaster.
Just as the storms reach their crest, the group at the Tower, in concert with the Artificers back In Haven, a number of Spirit Avatars, the ghosts of Herald-Mage Vanyel and Stefan and Yfandes, and even the sword Need, discover a possible solution to the mage-storms—but the price of using that solution might be the lives (or the closest equivalent, in the cases of several of the more unusual beings present) of everyone gathered at Urtho’s Tower.
The Owls Trilogy
(otherwise known as Darian’s Tale)
This series begins about a year after the end of the magestorms, and takes place in the far northwestern corner of Valdemar, on the country’s border where a number of very different cultures meet.
1997
Owlflight
Darian Firkin is an orphan in the village of Errold’s Grove, fostered against his will to the small town’s somewhat ineffective mage, Justyn. Darian’s parents disappeared in the Pelagiris forest during a mage-storm, and the villagers decided what to do with Darian without ever consulting him. After hearing the villagers repeat every day that his much beloved parents were crazed to go into the forest, and that they brought danger to the village every time they did so, not to mention what a useless and troublesome boy he was, Darian is turning into a resentful teenager.
But before Darian can make his mind up to run away or rebel, disaster strikes the village. A well organized group of brigands destroys the volunteer militia, and is heading straight to the town bent on mayhem. Darian hears the alarms and comes back from the forest just in time to see Justyn call a Final Strike upon himself, destroying both the lizardlike monster at the head of the army and the only bridge into the town, but not halting the brigands’ advance permanently. All justyn’s sacrifice can do is buy enough time to allow the villagers to escape. Darian flees back into the forest, where he eludes his pursuers with the help the Tayledras scout Snowflre k’Vala and his bondbird, the eagle-owl Hweel.
The Tayledras are in the area to reshape the reforming magical ley-lines and nodes into a matrix that will be beneficial to themselves and the Valdemaran Herald-Mages, and to prevent rival Dark mages from locking the gathering power to themselves. They offer to adopt Darian into their Clan, on the condition that he learn to use his Mage-Gift. Darian agrees. The Hawkbrothers assume that the villagers have escaped to Lord Breon and Kelmskeep and have no need of them, but they feel a real liking and sympathy for this upset boy that leads them to offer him their protection.
When the clan learns that the villagers did not escape, but instead have been captured and are being used as slave labor by the invaders, the Tayledras realize that they must do something to save Darien’s people. Though greatly outnumbered they make a bold night strike to free the villagers and break the brigand’s hold on the village before the shaman-mage leading the brigands can steal the magical power building there and use it for his own dark devices. And Darian, who came along only as their guide to the village, finds himself facing that very mage, with the fate of all the people he loves dependent upon his ability to face down and destroy this powerful foe.
1998
Owlsight
Some four years after Owlflight, Keisha Alder is the Healer in Errold’s Grove, and the small town is now a thriving village. Having cleansed the forests north of Valdemar, Darian and the Hawkbrothers return to k’Vala Vale. They are unable to remain there for long, however, for gryphons on a far northern patrol have seen another group of barbarians coming south. Unlike the brigands that nearly destroyed Errold’s Grove, this is an entire Clan rather than an invading army, and they are obviously planning to settle in the area.
Darian and a group of volunteers take occupancy of the Vale near Errold’s Grove that Mage Starfall had begun years ago, and call it k’Valdemar. When the northern Clan shows no signs of stopping before they reach Valdemar’s border, Haven sends a force led by Herald-Captain Kerowyn to offer settlement agreements to the tribe. The Valdemarans learn that the Clan has been stricken by a plague and believes that they have been led to this place by their totem animal, a Ghost Cat, to find a cure. Donan and Keisha realize that the Clan has a point—a cure must be found, or the disease could spread to Valdemar. The two work together in a desperate attempt to find a cure for the illness, as well as the means to deliver it the Ghost Cat Clan and have them accept it, before they and the people of the Clan and of Valdemar are decimated by disease and war.
1998
Owlknight
K'Valdemar Vale near Errold’s Grove has become a neutral ground where the disparate peoples of the area can come together to settle their differences. Darian Firkin k’Vala
k’Valdemar is in the unusual position of having a tie to each of the communities that make up this unique vale—the Tayledras, the Villagers, Lord Breon’s people, and the Ghost Cat Clan—and he has a position of authority in each of them, but despite his responsibllities to these disparate groups, he has personal issues he wants to attend to. He is very much in love with Healer Keisha, and he still wants to learn what happened to his parents. Prophetic dreams seem to indicate to him that his father and mother are still alive, and that he should locate them. Following old trapping trails, he finds the bones of a human foot at the very edge of a Change-Circle, sheared off in a boot that he recognizes as his father’s. Using Darian’s find and magic, Firesong is able to determine that Darian’s father is still alive and lives somewhere far to the north and west.
Darian forms a search party to help him look for his parents. His friends and he will travel under the guise of traders, taking Keisha’s dyes and spices as trade goods. As they work their way north, Keisha also teaches her Healing skills to the Wisewomen and Shaman of the clans they stay with. The Wolverine tribe, led by a shaman-mage, has taken the place of the vicious Blood Bear Clan that was destroyed years ago in Errold’s Grove, and now are attacking and destroying all the tribes in their path. In order to find Darian’s parents, the searchers must pass through the Wolverine Clan’s territory. Darian is faced with a choice—whether to put everyone that he loves at risk in the harsh lands and hostile tribes of the distant North, or to give up on the dream of finding his parents. Or there might be a third choice—if he can only find a way to defeat the enemies threatening them all, with a tiny force of allies and a great deal of cleverness.
Individual Novels
2000
Brightly Burning
Lavan Chitward is a bit of a misfit in his own family. His parents are high up in the Needleworkers’ and Cloth Merchants’ Guilds, but he has absolutely no urge to follow in their footsteps. When the whole family moves to Haven because of his parents’ work, he loses even the comfort and familiarity of the home he has known his whole life. When they are unable to interest him in apprenticing, his family sends Lavan to the Merchants’ School in Haven, hoping he’ll learn a great deal and find a trade that calls to him. But Lavan’s feeling that this will be an improvement in his life is dashed by his discovery that the school is dominated by student bullies who torment and abuse the younger children. When the bullies attack Lavan, he feels ill, and his skin glows red with fever. He tries to avoid the older boys, but one terrible day they find him, trap him in an unused classroom where no one can come to his aid, and flog him nearly to the point of unconsciousness. Rage builds within Lavan, and that ill feeling comes over him again, this time overwhelming him. Lavan has the Gift of Firestarting, and in this awful moment, it comes to life in an uncontrolled surge of power that makes room burst into flame and kills the four boys who tormented him.
Badly burned, Lavan is taken to the Healers’ Collegium for treatment. When he awakens, he is Chosen by Companion Kallia, who says she will be able to control his Gift for Firestarting even when he cannot. Despite the accusations of murder lodged by one of the dead boys’ family, the Heralds stand by Lavan. Valdemar is now openly at war with Karse, and Lavan, with his extraordinary abilities, has become one of the most important Heralds in the land. In order for him to use his Gift, however, he needs to become angry, and fear is ever-present in the minds of those around him that one day, even with Kalira’s help, Lavan will not be able to control his rage and will destroy everything near, be it friend or foe.
But events prove that fear to be unjustified. Even when the crazed mother of one of the boys who died puts him at terrible risk and confronts him in front of the King and most of the city of Haven, he is able to control his Gift. And as the war with Karse intensifies, his talent saves the day in battle after battle—until an overwhelming force gathers at Valdimar’s border, and the enemy makes the mistake of targeting Lavan’s Companion Kalira. From that moment, the enemy’s fate is assured, and Lavan Firestarter’s name will go down in Valdemar’s history books.
2001
Take a Thief
Herald Skif is the first thief to be Chosen in the history of the Collegium. But he would never have guessed his fate back when he was a poor orphan left in the care of his uncle, Londer Galko, who among other shady businesses owns the run-down Hollybush tavern in the poorest part of Haven. Skif’s life is an endless series of chores, hunger, and ducked blows. Londer’s eldest son, Kalchan, runs the tavern with an iron fist, dominating his miserable crew of workers with threats and brutality.
Skif spends his afternoons roaming the city, looking for a way to dull his gnawing hunger and improve his miserable life Skif takes what he can, including the food that keeps him from starvation, from the wealthier families in Haven. His favorite source of sustenance is the home of Lord Orthallen, since that nobleman’s household is so large that no one notices Skif slipping in and out. One day, as he’s hiding there in a washroom loft, Skif surprises a young thief in the act. In exchange for his silence, Skif asks the thief, Deek, to teach him what he knows.
Deek brings Skif to meet Bazie, his teacher in thievery, as well as the other boys Bazie is training, Raf and Lyle. Bazie is a former Tedrel mercenary who lost both his legs in the war with Valdemar. He stayed in Valdemar after the Healers saved him, and makes his living by taking in foundling boys and teaching them the art of thieving. His motto is to never take more than what is needed, because to do so invites trouble. The ring makes their living by stealing fine textiles that are unlikely to be missed and selling them to a fence. They supplement their income with pickpocketing and the occasional burglary.
Bazie and the boys accept Skif into their lives after trouble at the Hollybush leaves Skif without a home.
Bazie proves to be a fine teacher and a caring mentor, a man who takes the boys he trains into his heart. It’s the first time since his mother died that Skif has felt like he was part of a family. He spends a satisfying few years with Bazie, steadily becoming more skilled in all the thieving trades. Then Skif returns home to find his building in flames and Bazie and his friends dead in the wreckage. Wild with grief, Skif would have gone to his own death trying to save them if not for Herald Alberich, who pulls the boy back from the fire and knocks him unconscious.
Homeless and grief-stricken, Skif makes it his mission to find and get revenge upon whoever was responsible for killing his friends. In the course of his quest, he realizes that the ultimate orders came from someone very powerful, possibly even a noble. After finding the arsonist, Skif spies upon him day and night, hoping to discover who ordered the fire. In the course of his surveillance he again meets Herald Alberich, and is Chosen by the Companion Cymry.
When the arsonist is killed, Skif fears his last link to Bazie’s killer has been severed, but finds a new set of clues by threatening his Uncle Londer, who has a finger in most of the unsavory activities in the city. That information links the man responsible for the fire with a crime ring that kidnaps and enslaves children. Skif offers himself as bait and, with Alberich as his backup, lets himself be kidnapped. The plan works, and reveals that Guildmaster Vatean, a friend of Lord Orthallen’s, is behind the slavery ring in Haven as well as the arson that killed Bazie and the boys. Even though Vatean dies by Skif’s own hand, revenge isn’t enough for the boy. The reformed thief begins his new life at the Collegium with the largest family he could imagine, the Heralds and Companions, and with a vow to help and defend the helpless of Valdemar as his way of fighting back against those who would do evil.
1997
Sword of Ice and Other Tales of Valdemar
A collection of short stories set in and around Valdemar, three of which are co-authored by Mercedes Lackey.
“Sunlancer” by Philip M. Austin and Mercedes Lackey
A young Karsite captain is troubled by the actions of Vkandis’ priests. The questions of a scholar, a guest of his grandfather’s who is actually a Herald in disguise,
make Clarrin realize that the priests counterfeit their miracles.
“The Demon’s Den” by Tanya Huff
Herald Jors is inside an old mine when a rockfall buries his legs. His Companion goes to the nearby mining village for aid, but only blind and legless Ari, the former chief engineer of the mine, is willing to go back to help save him.
“Ironrose” by Larry Dixon and Mel White
In a Hawkbrother Vale, Ironrose the smith and Sunrunner the hunter each long for the other, but both are too shy to act. Two hertasi conspire to join the two.
“Babysitter” by Josepha Sherman
Leryn, a gem-merchant whose caravan has been destroyed by bandits, finds a dead gryphon in the wilds north of Lake Evendim. Knowing he can’t leave her gryphiet to die, he cares for it.
“The Salamander” by Richard Lee Byers
A former mercenary, now a sword-teacher, is hired by a minor leader of the Blue faction in Mornedealth to find out who among the Greens is torching her properties.
“A Child’s Adventures” by Janni Lee Simner
A Companion comes to the small village of River’s Bend, Choosing Inya. Inya refuses to go with the Companion, saying that she is too old to be a Herald and that the Companion should have chosen her granddaughter.
“Blood Ties” by Stephanie D. Shaver
Rivin is a twelve-year-old boy whose mother died five years ago. After he takes his two younger sisters to their aunt for care, his older sister Sattar acts strangely but refuses to answer his questions.
“…Another Successful Experiment” by Lawrence Schimel
A Herald-Trainee named Chavi invents a team game for Heralds and Companions, which can be used for equitation practice dnd combat training.
“Choice” by Michelle West
Kelsey, a tavern barmaid, insists on helping a wounded Herald get his urgent messages to Haven. They hire onto a caravan, for his Companion is too badly injured to bear him, but the caravan is pursued, for others do not want the Herald to tell his story.
The Valdemar Companion Page 17
