Crucible Read online

  Raves for the Previous Valdemar Anthologies:

  “Fans of Lackey’s epic Valdemar series will devour this superb anthology. Of the thirteen stories included, there is no weak link—an attribute exceedingly rare in collections of this sort. Highly recommended.”

  —The Barnes and Noble Review

  “This high-quality anthology mixes pieces by experienced authors and enthusiastic fans of editor Lackey’s Valdemar. Valdemar fandom, especially, will revel in this sterling example of what such a mixture of fans’ and pros’ work can be. Engrossing even for newcomers to Valdemar.”

  —Booklist

  “Josepha Sherman, Tanya Huff, Mickey Zucker Reichert, and Michelle West have quite good stories, and there’s another by Lackey herself. Familiarity with the series helps but is not a prerequisite to enjoying this book.”

  —Science Fiction Chronicle

  “Each tale adheres to the Lackey laws of the realm yet provides each author’s personal stamp on the story. Well written and fun, Valdemarites will especially appreciate the magic of this book.”

  —The Midwest Book Review

  “The sixth collection set in Lackey’s world of Valdemar presents stories of Heralds and their telepathic horselike Companions and of Bards and Healers, and provides glimpses of the many other aspects of a setting that has a large and avid readership. The fiften original tales in this volume will appeal to series fans.”

  —Library Journal

  Titles by MERCEDES LACKEY

  available from DAW Books:

  THE NOVELS OF VALDEMAR:

  THE HERALDS OF VALDEMAR

  ARROWS OF THE QUEEN

  ARROW’S FLIGHT

  ARROW’S FALL

  THE LAST HERALD-MAGE

  MAGIC’S PAWN

  MAGIC’S PROMISE

  MAGIC’S PRICE

  THE MAGE WINDS

  WINDS OF FATE

  WINDS OF CHANGE

  WINDS OF FURY

  THE MAGE STORMS

  STORM WARNING

  STORM RISING

  STORM BREAKING

  VOWS AND HONOR

  THE OATHBOUND

  OATHBREAKERS

  OATHBLOOD

  THE COLLEGIUM CHRONICLES

  FOUNDATION

  INTRIGUES

  CHANGES

  REDOUBT

  BASTION

  THE HERALD SPY

  CLOSER TO HOME

  CLOSER TO THE HEART

  BY THE SWORD

  BRIGHTLY BURNING

  TAKE A THIEF

  EXILE’S HONOR

  EXILE’S VALOR

  VALDEMAR ANTHOLOGIES

  SWORD OF ICE

  SUN IN GLORY

  CROSSROADS

  MOVING TARGETS

  CHANGING THE WORLD

  FINDING THE WAY

  UNDER THE VALE

  NO TRUE WAY

  CRUCIBLE

  Written with LARRY DIXON:

  THE MAGE WARS

  THE BLACK GRYPHON

  THE WHITE GRYPHON

  THE SILVER GRYPHON

  DARIAN’S TALE

  OWLFLIGHT

  OWLSIGHT

  OWLKNIGHT

  OTHER NOVELS:

  GWENHWYFAR

  THE BLACK SWAN

  THE DRAGON JOUSTERS

  JOUST

  ALTA

  SANCTUARY

  AERIE

  THE ELEMENTAL MASTERS

  THE SERPENT’S SHADOW

  THE GATES OF SLEEP

  PHOENIX AND ASHES

  THE WIZARD OF LONDON

  RESERVED FOR THE CAT

  UNNATURAL ISSUE

  HOME FROM THE SEA

  STEADFAST

  BLOOD RED

  FROM A HIGH TOWER

  A STUDY IN SABLE*

  Anthologies:

  ELEMENTAL MAGIC

  ELEMENTARY

  *Coming soon from DAW Books

  And don’t miss: THE VALDEMAR COMPANION edited by John Helfers and Denise Little

  Copyright © 2015 by Mercedes Lackey and Stonehenge Art & Word.

  All Rights Reserved.

  Cover art by Jody Lee.

  Cover design by G-Force Design.

  DAW Book Collectors No. 1712.

  Published by DAW Books, Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

  All resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  ISBN 9780698188457

  DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED

  U.S. PAT. AND TM. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

  —MARCA REGISTRADA

  HECHO EN U.S.A.

  Version_1

  Contents

  Raves for the Valdemar Anthologies

  Titles by Mercedes Lackey

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Feathers in Need

  Jennifer Brozek

  The Highjorune Masque

  Stephanie D. Shaver

  Lost Song

  Dylan Birtolo

  Unresolved Consequences

  Elizabeth A. Vaughan

  Gifts of Rage and Despair

  Ron Collins

  A Bellowing of Bullfinches

  Elisabeth Waters

  She Chooses

  Michele Lang

  The Harvest

  Kristin Schwengel

  Before a River Runs Through It

  Fiona Patton

  Hertasi and Wyrsa and Magpies, Oh My!

  Louisa Swann

  A Fire in the Grass

  Michael Z. Williamson and Jessica Schlenker

  Never Alone

  Dayle A. Dermatis

  Down the Line

  Brigid Collins

  Ghosts of the Past

  Angela Penrose

  The Quiet Gift

  Anthea Sharp

  Healing Home

  Kerrie L. Hughes

  The Note

  Phaedra Weldon

  Vexed Vixen

  Mercedes Lackey

  About the Authors

  About the Editor

  Feathers in Need

  Jennifer Brozek

  Running, stumbling, looking over her shoulder. Gasping for breath. Monster stalking nearer. Scrabbling at the tree, climbing, escaping. Shuddering with fear and pain. Free? No. It’s coming back. Hunting. Must get higher! Must—

  Still seeking escape, Hadara lunged out of her nest, clawing for higher ground. She tumbled forward, falling to the soft Vale earth. Before she gathered herself, realized she wasn’t being hunted and there was no danger, Serta, one of the little hertasi who looked after k’Leysha Vale, was there.

  “Hadara?” The little lizard stepped closer.

  The gryphon tilted her head, listening to where Serta moved. It was well out of range. Hadara clambered back into her nest and resettled her wings, fluffing her tawny feathers. When she was still, she turned sightless eyes to Serta. “It was a nightmarrre. I wasss being hunted by a monssster. The Pelagirrssss . . .”

  “It’s the fallen shield. Many things get in.” Serta step
ped closer, noisy for the silent and near invisible hertasi.

  Hadara knew it was for her benefit. Part of her appreciated the courtesy. Part of her wanted to clack her beak at the little creature, coming within a whisker of the hertasi to show that, blind she may be, she was not incapable.

  Instead, she sighed. “You’rrre rrrright. I mussst be hearrring one of the ssmarrrterr prrrey animalssss out therre.”

  “Soon. Soon. The shields will return. The Mage Storms are done. The Heartstone will be refilled.”

  “I know.” Hadara crossed her claws before her and rested her chin upon them. It was logical, of course. A Pelagiris creature in danger. Her own strong Animal Mindspeech. The sleeping mind sees much . . .

  Still, she couldn’t help but think there was more to this nightmare.

  • • •

  The next two nights were the same. Dreams of being hunted. Of being lost, hurt, and confused. Almost understanding what had happened, but having no time to think with the monster stalking her every step. More than once, Hadara woke in a wonder of looking down at clawed hands instead of gryphon’s claws. Hands that could almost be human.

  It didn’t make sense. There was too much there to be a mere animal. Too much personality beneath the fear and confusion. She—it was a she—needed help. Hadara knew it, and that she was coming toward the Vale.

  On the morning of the fourth day, Hadara found herself at the edge of the Vale, straining with all her senses to catch any scent or mind-call. She opened herself as much as she dared in an unprotected Vale on the edge of the Pelagiris. She had to be careful since most of the border guards and scouts were assisting the Shin’a’in back to the Dhorisha Plains. Each dream had gotten stronger and more vivid. Despite the loss of her sight, Hadara still dreamed in vision. For now. Calmwater had counseled her that such dreams would fade in time.

  As if summoned by her thought, Calmwater stepped up to her side. The two of them stood in silence. Hadara wondered if he’d been sent by the hertasi.

  “Tiron told me you’d not been to see them this morning. I fear you have spoiled them with your attentions. They’ve come to expect your presence.”

  The herds of dyheli that lived nearby were great friends. It had been days since she’d gone to visit with them. An unfortunate oversight, so soon after the Mage Storms.

  Hadara fluffed her feathers, then let them lay smooth against her head once more. “I have been thinking.”

  “About your dreams?”

  Lolling her mouth open in a smile, Hadara couldn’t help herself or her sharp tone. “Do the hertasi ssspy for you or do they merrrely gosssssip?”

  “A little of both.” Calmwater shifted his stance next to her.

  She heard the beads woven through his long hair click against each other in harmony. She was not willing to play the waiting game today. “Therre iss ssomething in trrrrouble out therre.”

  “Are you sure that it isn’t your mind still seeking ways to find a cure for your affliction?”

  This time, Hadara did clack her beak near him. “I am not helplessss. I am not a mewling crrreature looking for ssssomething I will not find. I am capable. I am . . .” She paused, her beak hovering near his face, smelling his particular scent, “ . . . not making thingsss up.”

  For a long moment, Calmwater said nothing as Hadara shifted her attention back to the strange forest beyond the Vale. “I understand all these things. I apologize for giving you the impression that I thought you incapable. Your strength of Animal Mindspeech is unrivaled—”

  “Thanksss to my blindnessss,” she interrupted. The bitterness in her voice startled her.

  He continued without pause, “—and I wished to see if there is anything I may do for you.”

  “No.” Hadara gouged the ground, tearing it with her wicked claws. Despite his protestations and his assurance that he did not believe her incapable, the first thing he did was ask to help her. Calmwater was wise, but, at the same time, he was as blind as she in some respects.

  She listened to him leave without another word. Hadara bowed her head. Her blindness was difficult for many to accept. At times, even her. But it was the way of things now. Despite it, she was not crazy. Something out there in the Pelagiris—something sentient—was in trouble.

  “You were harsh.”

  Serta’s scolding voice came from her left, and again irritation warred with pleasure. Hadara had not heard the hertasi. That meant that Serta hadn’t thought to treat her as an invalid this time.

  She raised her beak high. “If I wasss, it wasss because he believed me addddlebrained.”

  “Or petulant.”

  Hadara turned her head to Serta. “Perrrhapsss. But I am not wrrrong.”

  She would have said more, but the vision of running, of fear, of foliage streaming past her face, was there once more in overwhelming clarity. With it came the wordless cry for help. Hadara stumbled as the images of a headlong flight and the sensation of gasping for air assaulted her. She turned her head this way and that, trying to get a sense of where the creature was.

  “Hadara?”

  “It’sss back! Sssshe’s in trouble. It will get herrr this time!” Hadara pulled herself to her feet, feeling the panic of the animal in flight. “I have to help.”

  “How?” Serta was at her side.

  The answer came in the form of a familiar glade not too far from the Vale. Hadara knew it—not from the sight of it but from the plants within, the fallen logs, and the tree at its head.

  “The glade of two logsss. Take me.” Hadara was already heading into the forest, her wings out and mantled so she could gauge where the trees were. The trail, while not an easy stroll, was not unfamiliar.

  Serta scurried alongside her, near her front left leg. The two moved in unison down one of the worn forest paths. It was too slow. Images of a monstrous creature flashed before her. Black chitin armor on a wolfen back. Two snarling heads where only one should be. Five clawed legs. Snapping teeth came too close.

  Hadara stumbled. Serta was there. There was little the hertasi could do except wait for the gryphon to get her feet. “Too ssslow. You have to help me. Guide me!” Hadara rose, bowed her head, and ran. All the while, confused imagery filled her mind. Now the view was one of height, looking down on the changed monster.

  “Left!” Serta yelled as she kept pace. Hadara dodged left, bumping her right wing into a tree. “Left,” the hertasi instructed. “Left and then right. Big tree.”

  Hadara did as she was told, remembering this path. She walked it on her own when she had time. Half-tripping over some roots, she gave a squawk, and the image in her mind turned from the monster trying to climb the tree toward the trail leading out of the glade.

  :Help! Help me!:

  The Animal Mindspeech was so strong it almost made Hadara fall again. Instead, she shook her head to clear it, then called with all her strength. :I’m coming. I’m coming. Watch the monster. Watch where it goes.:

  Hadara and Serta burst into the glade. Hadara got a good look at what she and Serta looked like, running pell-mell into sight. The cry of a hawk in pain filled the air, and the image shifted to one of the monster’s heads clamped onto a human leg.

  “Get help!” Hadara didn’t wait for Serta to answer. Instead, she screamed a battle cry and charged the creature in her mind’s eye. She used the flickering glade images to tell her where the monster was as she leapt. Landing on the back of the two-headed monster, Hadara could see what she looked like from the side as she tore flesh with beak and claw.

  :Gryphon . . . ?:

  :Keep watching. I need your—: Hadara didn’t get to finish the thought as the wolfen monster spun, throwing her from its back. She landed hard on her side. The snarling, slavering creature was on her before she could bounce to her feet.

  It tried for her throat and face, but she kept the two heads from her with her fro
nt claws while raking its tender underbelly with her back claws. The chitin kept her from being effective. Hadara stabbed at one face with her beak, drawing blood. The other wolf head howled, and the gryphon threw the monster off her.

  The two circled each other—then the image was gone, replaced with foliage. “No! Keep watching!” Hadara cried, even as she was bowled over by the monster she couldn’t see anymore. Snapping jaws bit deep into her chest. As the image returned to the fight, the gryphon had just enough time to block the wolfen claws before they tore into her underbelly.

  Then the fight came close as the creature she’d come to rescue in turn rescued her by stabbing the wolfen creature in the hindquarters. The dagger—a human dagger—struck deep into the monster’s haunch. It kicked out at the creature, knocking her back but allowing Hadara to roll the monster off her.

  :Keep watching it. Please! I can’t see it if you don’t.: Hadara threw the Animal Mindspeech toward what she now thought to be a mutated tervardi.

  Wordless surprise and understanding flooded Hadara’s mind. Then, with a foresight she wouldn’t have thought of, the tervardi moved toward the gryphon but kept her eyes on the monster. Suddenly, it was as if Hadara were seeing it with her own eyes. She mantled her wings and screamed a challenge at the monster.

  As she moved, circling, the tervardi moved with her to keep the view consistent. The wolfen creature charged. Hadara met the charge with raking claws and slashing beak, keeping it away from the injured tervardi.

  Then a colorful streak of red-tailed hawk ripped fur from the back of one of the wolf heads, and a woman in red and green dove at the side of the monster with biting blades. Her hair, cut short in the style of scouts and warriors, was as red as blood. It was Crimsonstrike, Calmwater’s lifemate. Moments later, Nightclaw and Summerfire were there, and the monster had no chance.

  The image of the fight cut off as the tervardi pressed her face to Hadara’s neck, sobbing in bird cries and babbled Animal Mindspeech. :I was caught in the storm. It hurt so much. Then I was lost, confused, and the monster found me. It killed my horse. My poor Rune. It hunted me for days. I don’t understand what’s happened to me.:

  All Hadara could do was fold her wings and one claw about the distressed tervardi. She chirped soothing tones. :It’s over. It’s over now. Shhhh.: