A MAGICAL MANIAC IS LOOSE IN ALANDA!

A magical murderer is loose in Alanda. The victims are always women, always lower-class, and the weapon is always a three-sided stiletto, most often found among Church regalia. But the killers are never churchmen, and they always commit suicide immediately after the bloody deed.

Tal Rufen is just a simple constable. But he really cares about his job, and when one of these murder/suicides happens on his beat he becomes obsessed. His superiors don't care—the victims will never be missed, and their murderers are already justly dead. But every instinct Tal Rufen has cries out that he has seen only one small piece of a bigger and much nastier puzzle....

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mercedes Lackey has a degree in biology from Purdue University. Like many writers, she has worked at a variety of jobs including short stints as a waitress, security guard, telephone surveyor and artist's model. A longer period of time was spent as a computer programmer for American Airlines. What she is most known for, however, and what has inspired a national fan club of over one thousand members, are her inventive fantasy novels. She lives outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her husband and collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, and their ever growing menagerie. Larry and Misty are both members of SOAR (Support Our American Raptors), sponsors of the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and continue to work rehabilitating birds to live in the wild.

Also in this series:

Bardic Voices: The Lark & the Wren
Bardic Voices: The Robin & the Kestrel
Bardic Voices: The Eagle & the Nightingale
Bardic Choices: A Cast of Corbies
  (with Josepha Sherman)

A GHOST OF A CHANCE

A voice, an icy, whispering voice, came out of the darkness from all around her; from everywhere, yet nowhere. It could have been born of her imagination, yet Rune knew the voice was the Ghost's, and that to run was to die. Instantly, but in terror that would make dying seem to last an eternity.

"Why have you come here, stupid child " it murmured, as fear urged her to run away. "Why were you waiting here For me Foolish child, do you not know what I am What I could do to you "

Rune had to swallow twice before she could speak, and even then her voice cracked and squeaked with fear.

"I've come to fiddle for you-sir " she said, gasping for breath between each word, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

The Ghost laughed, a sound with no humor in it, the kind of laugh that called up empty wastelands and icy peaks. "Well, then, girl. Fiddle, then. And pray to that Sacrificed God of yours that you fiddle well, very well. If you please me, if you continue to entertain me until dawn, I shall let you live, a favor I have never granted any other. But I warn you-the moment my attention lags, little girl-you'll die like all the others and you will join all the others in my own private little Hell."

Rune, Robin and Nightingale
together they will save us all.
(If we're very lucky)

Rune: She ran away from an abusive home to become the greatest violinist her world had ever known—and when The Ghost of Skull Hill tried to stop her, she played him to sleep!

Robin: No mean musician herself, she must make her own visit to Skull Hill—to recruit the dreadful ghost to their cause.

Nightingale: Alone she could accomplish nothing. So she joined forces with T'fyrr, a strange nonhuman with the face of a raptor and the voice of an angelic choir.

This unlikely set of heroes had the daunting task of saving the King—and through him the Gypsies, Free Bards, and non-humans of the twenty kingdoms. Fortunately, their opponents had no idea how potent a weapon music could be . . . .

" . . . fast and furious. Romance, action, intrigue all blend in a believable fantastic setting. Fans of Lackey and fantasy will be delighted with this addition to her series."
—Kliatt

LET THE KING BE KING!

Why is the High King of the Human kingdoms not doing his job— and thereby allowing the Church to fill the power vacuum in the human lands of Alanda? This is a matter of some concern to Nightingale and her friends: the church is becoming ever more overtly hostile to non-human sentients (of which there are several species in Alanda) as well as to anything that it does not at least indirectly control, such as gypsies and Free Bards.

To discover just what is going on, she will join forces with T’fyrr, a birdman with the visage of a raptor and the voice of an angelic choir. And before the King – and through him the gypsies, Free Bard and non-humans of the twenty kingdoms – is saved they, the Eagle and the Nightingale, will become if not quite lovers then far more than friends.