Under the Vale and Other Tales of Valdemar (42 page)

The thing is, now the Hawkbrothers don’t have to. They have whole new problems, though.

The Mage Storms of around 1,100 years later were ripple effects of the Cataclysm disjunction literally traveling around the planet and returning to their points of origin. The Mage Storms were not “echoed through time,” as some have said. It simply took that long for the waves to travel that distance, and by then they had changed from being disjunction disruptions into more like a “strain” or “sieve” effect. You already know the story of how the Mage Storms were handled and some of the aftereffects. The Storms left “available” magic in a much different state than before. For example, gryphons, whose wingbeats filter ambient magic to be absorbed and processed by their bone linings to produce the lift for their heavy bodies to fly, now have an easier time than ever achieving flight since the ambient magic was now more evenly spread out and “particulate.” Just the same, it created a “fog effect” for anything long-distance, returning magework to a very personal level rather than world-ranging. This really annoyed a lot of people who depended heavily upon long-distance spell effects, most notably the Eastern Empire, and they were already pretty cranky.

It is vital to remember that unlike many religions of Velgarth that have religious faith, the Tayledras and hertasi have absolutely zero doubt—not just that there is a goddess, but that this goddess takes an active interest in them on a personal level. There is no more crisis of faith in Tayledras life that a deity is involved in what you do than there is a crisis that water is wet or that fire is hot. Every Tayledras has a personal encounter with an aspect or representative of the goddess no less than once in their lives, and usually, much more often than that.

Tayledras have stupendously difficult lives in some regards, and while they train and strive to fend for themgelves, sometimes it just isn’t enough. Spirits of ancestors and fellow Tayledras work in the goddess’ service. These spirits—souls detached from physical bodies, incarnated into spirit beings—are each assigned to multiple Tayledras to watch over and help them through things they can not handle on their own. However, a direct intervention takes a lot out of them, so they’ll usually depend upon affecting something small in the physical world. If a Hawkbrother is drowning in a river, they’ll nudge over a weakened branch to clamber onto, rather than teleport the person to dry land. It’s also important to remember that while these guardians have otherworldly insights, they are not omniscient and ideal, and they can screw up.

To be utterly blunt, at present the Goddess Kal’enel concentrates most of her attention on the Shin’a’in because the Tayledras have their magic thing way more together than their Plains brethren, and they don’t usually need her help. In fact, by the time of the Storms, thanks to sixty-some extant Heartstone Vales and near-thousand Adepts, the Tayledras have collectively become the equal in power of any of the Velgarthian deities, though (fortunately?) they don’t realize it.

So, after almost a millenium of continuous hard work to bring order to the wild magic of the Pelagirs, do the Hawkbrothers feel as if their efforts were wasted now that the Storms came along and scraped away what they did to tame it all? Not at all, because they know that they pretty much saved everybody. If the Tayledras had not actively pulled the wild magic into order, the dangers of the Pelagirs would have overrun the whole of the known world.

The Hawkbrothers feel kind of satisfied knowing that. The goddess is pleased.

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About the Authors

Nancy Asire
is the author of four novels,
Twilight’s Kingdoms, Tears of Time, To Fall Like Stars,
and
Wizard Spawn. Wizard Spawn
was edited by C.J. Cherryh and became part of the
Sword of Knowledge
series. She also has written short stories for the series anthologies
Heroes in Hell
and
Merovingen Nights;
a short story for Mercedes Lackey’s
Flights of Fantasy;
as well as tales for the Valdemar anthologies
Sun in Glory
and
Crossroads.
She has lived in Africa and traveled the world but now resides in Missouri with her cats and two vintage Corvairs.

Jennifer Brozek
is an award winning editor and author. Winner of the 2009 Australian Shadows Award for edited publications, she has edited five anthologies, with more on the way. Author of
In a Gilded Light
and
The Little Finance Book That Could
, she has more than thirty-five published short stories and is an assistant editor for the Apex Book Company. Jennifer is also a freelance author for many RPG companies, including Margaret Weis Productions, Savage Mojo, Rogue Games, and Catalyst Game Labs. Winner of the 2010 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement, her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include
Dragon-lance
,
Colonial Gothic
,
Shadowrun
,
Serenity
,
Savage Worlds
, and
White Wolf SAS
. When she is not writing her heart out, she is gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather. She is an active member of SFWA and HWA.

Brenda Cooper
has published over thirty short stories in various magazines and anthologies. Her books include
The Silver Ship and the Sea
and
Reading the Wind
. She is a technology professional, a futurist, and a writer living in the Pacific Northwest with three dogs and two other humans. She blogs and tweets and all that stuff—stop by
www.brenda-cooper.com
and visit.

Larry Dixon
is the husband of Mercedes Lackey, and a successful artist as well as science fiction writer. He and Mercedes live in Oklahoma.

Rosemary Edghill
has been a frequent contributor to the Valdemar anthologies since selling her first novel in 1987, writing everything from Regency romances to SF to Alternate History to mysteries. Between writing gigs, she’s held the usual selection of weird writer jobs, and can truthfully state that she once killed vampires for money. She has collaborated with Marion Zimmer Bradley (
Shadow’s Gate
), Andre Norton (
Carolus Rex
), and Mercedes Lackey (“Bedlam’s Bard” and the forthcoming
Shadow Grail
). In the opinion of her dogs, she spends far too much time on Wikipedia. Her virtual home can be reached from
http://www.sff.net/people/eluki/
Her last name—despite the efforts of editors, reviewers, publishing houses, her webmaster, and occasionally her own fingers—is not spelled “Edgehill.”

Sarah A. Hoyt
was born in Portugal and lives in Colorado. In between lie a variety of jobs ranging from dishwasher to multilingual translator. Currently she lives in Colorado with her husband, two teen sons, and a small but fierce clowder of rescue cats. She writes and publishes science fiction, fantasy, historical, mystery,and romance novels under Sarah A. Hoyt, Sarah D’Almeida and Elise Hyatt.

Tanya Huff
lives and writes in rural Ontario, Canada, with her spouse, Fiona Patton, nine cats, and two dogs. She served in the Naval Reserve, has a slightly used degree in Radio and Television Arts, and has now been a full time writer for nineteen years. Her most recent books include
The Truth of Valor
and
The Wild Ways
. When she isn’t writing, she practices the guitar and complains about the weather.

Denise McCune
has been writing since she was eleven—which was (coincidentally?) right around the time she fell in love with Valdemar. She has worked in the social networking industry for nearly a decade, and not having enough to do writing novels and short stories (her first short story sale was to Jim Baen’s Universe), she decided to launch Dreamwidth, an Open Source social networking, content management, and personal publishing platform. Denise lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where her hobbies include knitting, writing, and staying up too late writing code.

Ben Ohlander
is a SFWA member and has coauthored novels with David Drake and Bill Forstchen. His first publication was a 1995 short story in the anthology
Tapestries
. He has returned to the short story format to explore aspects of conflict. He is a career Army officer with service in Afghanistan and Iraq and has worked as an analyst, software developer, and technical writer. He is married and lives in Ohio with three stepsons, one daughter, two cats, and a varying number of amphibians.

Fiona Patton
lives in rural Ontario with her spouse, Tanya Huff, and a pile of furry creatures. She has written seven novels for DAW, the latest being
The Shining City
, the third and final book in the Warriors of Estavia series. She has written over thirty short stories for DAW/Tekno Books anthologies. “The Watchman’s Ball” is her sixth story set in Mercedes Lackey’s world of Valdemar, the fourth featuring the Dann family of Haven.

Kate Paulk
masquerades as a mild-mannered software quality analyst during the day and spends most of what she sardonically describes as her “abundant spare time” writing. She is a regular contributor to the Valdemar anthologies, and her first novel,
Impaler
, is available in electronic and print form. She lives in semirural Pennsylvania with her husband, two demanding cats, and a very demanding imagination.

After having been a production coordinator, proofreader, loan document researcher, and bookseller,
Dan Shull
is currently working full-tilt toward a degree in Communications, since all the cool jobs he is interested in look for that sort of thing. He was born, raised, and still lives in California, though he wouldn’t mind a change of scenery now and again—especially during the summers. He has been known to engage in the hobbies of reading, role-playing games, and vigorous, meandering discussions on everything from history to physics. While this is his first published work, he has been writing off and on since his parents gave him that electric typewriter back when he was ten.

Kristin Schwengel
’s work has appeared in several of the previous Valdemar anthologies, among others. She and her husband live near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a gray-and-brown tabby cat named (what else?) Gandalf. Her work as a massage therapist leaves her just enough time to divide between writing and other pastimes.

Stephanie Shaver
lives in Southern California, where she works in the games industry and enjoys soaking up the sunshine. When she isn’t working or writing, she’s probably cooking, camping, or herding cats. You can find her online at
www.sdshaver.com
.

Elizabeth A. Vaughan
writes fantasy romance. Her first novel,
Warprize
, was rereleased in April 2011. The Chronicles of the Warlands continues in
WarCry
, released in May 2011. You can learn more about her books at
www.eavwrites.com
. At the present, she is owned by three incredibly spoiled cats and lives in the Northwest Territory, on the outskirts of the Black Swamp, along Mad Anthony’s Trail on the banks of the Maumee River.

Elisabeth Waters
sold her first short story in 1980 to Marion Zimmer Bradley for
The Keeper’s Price
, the first of the Darkover anthologies. She then went on to sell short stories to a variety of anthologies. Her first novel, a fantasy called
Changing Fate
, was awarded the 1989 Gryphon Award. She is now finishing a sequel to it, in addition to her short story writing. She also edits the anthology series
Sword and Sorceress
. In addition to her writing, she has worked as a supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera, where she appeared in
La Gioconda, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Khovan-schina, Das Rheingold, Werther
, and
Idomeneo
.

Michael Z. Williamson
and
Gail Sanders
are both veterans, though Mike is now retired from the military. For twenty years, they’ve run their own businesses selling historical weapons and armor, photography, and occasional prop, armorer, and consulting services for movies and TV. They work so well together that only one of them drafted this bio. You’ll have to guess which one. They can be found online at
SharpPointyThings.com
and
www.MichaelZWilliamson.com

About the Editor

Mercedes Lackey is a full-time writer and has published numerous novels and works of short fiction, including the bestselling
Heralds of Valdemar
series. She is also a professional lyricist and a licensed wild bird rehabilita-tor. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots.

TITLES BY MERCEDES LACKEY

available from DAW Books:

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

VALDEMAR ANTHOLOGIES:
SWORD OF ICE
SUN IN GLORY
CROSSROADS
MOVING TARGETS
CHANGING THE WORLD
FINDING THE WAY
UNDER THE VALE