DENORIEL:
WARRIOR OF KORONOS;
RIDER IN THE WILD HUNT
. . . NURSEMAID

Denoriel Siencyn Macreth Silverhair was a warrior in Koronos' band, a fierce rider in the Wild Hunt, but when he was summoned he came obediently to the valley of the FarSeers.

A glow of power lifted about the crystal lens. "Here is the nexus of our future," said the FarSeer in the dress of ancient Greece, and a mist seemed to pass over the surface of the lens. A moment later, the surface cleared, and within it, Denoriel saw the image of a human infant, red-haired and scowling, swaddled in fine, embroidered linen and lace . . . and glowing with power. The babe was being held by a figure that Denoriel recognized—the mortal king of England, Henry, eighth of that name.

The lens misted again, and scene after scene played out briefly before him—briefly, but enough to show him a future very bright for the mortals of England, a flowering of art, music, and letters, of great deeds, of exploration and bravery. Oh, there were problems——twice, if Denoriel read the signs aright Spain sent a great fleet against England, only to be repulsed at minimal cost. But the troubles were weathered, the difficulties overcome, and the result was nearly an age of gold.

"And this," said the lady of the ancient ways, "Is what will come to pass if that child does not reign."

Fires . . .

Black-robed priests, grim-faced and implacable, condemned scores, hundreds, to the Question, torturing their bodies until they would confess to anything, then burning what was left in front of silent onlookers. Others, whose intellects burned as brightly as the flames, did not need to be tortured; they confessed their sins of difference defiantly . . . and were also burned. In place of a flowering of art and science, came a blight. Darkness fell over the land, pressed there by the heavy, iron hand of Spain and the Inquisition.

"You are the key to all of this." The FarSeer's emerald eyes held his. "The red-haired child of Great Harry of England must live, and thrive, and grow up to rule. You must go to it in the mortal world, and become its protector."

"But I am a warrior, not a nursemaid—" he said, feebly.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Mercedes Lackey is the author of the Bardic Voices series and the SERRAted Edge series (both Baen), the Heralds of Valdemar series (DAW), and many more. Of her writing, Stephen King has stated, "She'll keep you up long past your bedtime," and Locus raved, "Lackey is one of the best storytellers in the field." She has her own fan club with over 1,000 members, and was one of the first writers to have an online newsgroup devoted to her writing. Among her popular Baen titles are The Fire Rose, The Lark and the Wren, and The Shadow of the Lion (with Eric Flint and Dave Freer). She lives in Oklahoma.

Roberta Gellis is author of over 25 novels in different fields. New York Times best-selling author John Jakes has called her "a superb storyteller of extraordinary talent," Publishers Weekly has termed her "a master of the medieval historical," and Romantic Times has praised her as "a master spinner of tales." Her many awards include: The Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for historical novels from West Coast Review of Books and the Golden Certificate and Golden Pen from Affaire de Coeur. From Romantic Times she has received both the Award for Best Novel in the Medieval Period and also the Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy. And the Romance Writers of America have presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award. Her previous fantasy titles for Baen are Bull God and Thrice Bound.

DOOMSDAY. ARE YOU READY

Harve Rackham: Bounty hunter, race-car driver. His best friend is a hunting cheetah. Ready for "dirty" bombs from terrorists, or full-fledged nukes from a rogue nation, Harve has turned his California home into a survival shelter. He intends to pull through.

Shar McKay: Harve's little sister. Shar's latest fad is nuclear survival. She intends for her husband and kids to all pull through.

Ernest McKay: Engineer. He has the knowledge and skills to save his family. With his help they'll all pull through.

Kate Gallo: Runaway, forger, a tough street survivor. She's trouble—but when real troubles come down, Kate will always pull through.

They're tough, they're survivors, and this is their story: A novel of the day after Doomsday by a New York Times best-selling author.

Publisher's Note: Parts of The Rackham Files have been published separately, in the novel Pulling Through, in the volume Firefight: Y2K, and in the volume Combat, edited by Stephen Coonts. This is the first unified publication of the entire Harve Rackham series.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dean Ing has written many bestsellers combining High-tech (and accurate) technology with fast-moving thriller plots in the vein of Tom Clancy and Stephen Coonts, including the New York Times best seller, The Ransom of Black Stealth One. Kirkus Reviews has called his work "credible and entertaining." His 1980 novel Soft Targets has proven prophetic with its warning of the vulnerability of the United States to terrorist attacks. He is also a widely published science fiction writer, and has been a Hugo and Nebula Awards finalist. His contributions to the Man-Kzin Wars volumes have been among the most popular in that best-selling series. A former U.S. Air Force interceptor crew chief, Ing has designed, built, and raced prototype sports cars while becoming a senior research engineer in the aerospace industry for Lockheed, United, and others. He and his wife live in Ashland, Oregon.

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)

The Warmasters

Three Masters of Military Science Fiction
Three Great Science Fiction Series:

 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Born to Be Weird...

When Tom Kolczyskrenski got his discharge papers from the Air Force, he decided to look up his old pals—and the world would never be the same. At one time, the oddly mismatched trio had been roommates, then they'd gone their separate ways. Tom, for lack of money, enlisted in the Air Force to learn electronics. The other two had finished college, lan McTavish going into mechanical engineering and a job with GM, and Jim Hasenpfeffer into behavioral science, leading to his having gotten a Department of Defense grant to—this is serious stuff, now—study social interactions in motorcycle gangs.

So the three set out to be their own motorcycle gang. But these easy riders had barely begun to closely observe their own interactions when they ran across a strange perfectly hemispherical hole in the ground where a house used to be, with everything that had been in the sphere of influence slowly materializing in bits and pieces in the surrounding area. And they found the plans for the machine that had done this, and were sure they could duplicate it and get rich. But before long they would be wishing they had kept on being the three musketeers on bikes, instead of the three stooges of time travel....

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leo Frankowski is widely known for the popular "Cross-Time Engineer" series, which has gone through six novels to date, with translated editions in three languages. He is also the author of Copernick's Rebellion, a novel of a future based on a revolution in the biological sciences, of which The SF Site writes, "I have never read anything as original as Copernick's Rebellion , . . [it's] on my top 10 list." His other novels for Baen are A Boy and His Tank and The Fata Morgana. Frankowski was nominated for the John W. Campbell award for best new writer. He has held more than a hundred different positions, ranging from scientist in an electro-optical research lab to chief engineer to company president. His work in chemical and optical instrumentation has earned him several patents. Currently a writer and consulting engineer, he lives with his new Russian wife and teenage daughter in Tver, Russia.