Mercedes Lackey - Changes: Volume Three of the Collegium Chronicles (A Valdemar Novel)

Titles by MERCEDES LACKEY

available from DAW Books:

THE NOVELS OF VALDEMAR:

THE HERALDS OF VALDEMAR

ARROWS OF THE QUEEN

ARROWS FLIGHT

ARROWS FALL

THE LAST HERALD-MAGE

MAGICS PAWN

MAGICS PROMISE

MAGICS 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

BY THE SWORD

BRIGHTLY BURNING

TAKE A THIEF

EXILES HONOR

EXILES VALOR

VALDEMAR ANTHOLOGIES

SWORD OF ICE

SUN IN GLORY

CROSSROADS

MOVING TARGETS

CHANGING THE WORLD

FINDING THE WAY

UNDER THE VALE (Coming soon from Daw Books)

WRITTEN WITH LARRY DIXON:

THE MAGE WARS

THE BLACK GRYPHON

THE WHITE GRYPHON

THE SILVER GRYPHON

DARIANS TALE

OWLFLIGHT

OWLSIGHT

OWLKNIGHT

OTHER NOVELS:

GWENHWYFAR

THE BLACK SWAN

THE DRAGON JOUSTERS

JOUST

ALTA

SANCTUARY

AERIE

THE ELEMENTAL MASTERS

THE SERPENTS SHADOW

THE GATES OF SLEEP

PHOENIX AND ASHES

THE WIZARD OF LONDON

RESERVED FOR THE CAT

UNNATURAL ISSUE

AND DONT MISS:

THE VALDEMAR COMPANION

EDITED BY JOHN HELFERS AND DENISE LITTLE

C HANGES

COLLEGIUM CHRONICLES

BOOK THREE

M ERCEDES L ACKEY

Copyright 2011 by Mercedes R. Lackey

All Rights Reserved.

Jacket art by Jody Lee.

DAW Book Collectors No. 1561.

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Book designed by Elizabeth Glover.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via 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 authors rights is appreciated.

First Printing, October 2011

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. AND TM. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
MARCA REGISTRADA
HECHO EN U.S.A.

Dedicated to the memories of Martin (Marty) Greenberg and Mark Shepherd.

Well miss you.

M ags shaded his eyes and peered across the uneven ground of the Kirball field at the opposing team huddled up in front of their goal and forced himself to relax. There was no point in getting tense. This was only a game, after all. He had to keep reminding himself of that, even as nervous sweat trickled down the back of his neck, and inside his gloves his palms were moist.

Only a game being played in front of hundreds of people...

::To most of whom you are just a red shape on a white horse. Even with Colin calling the gameplay, they still wouldnt know who you were.:: The voice in his head was as familiar as his own now, warm and slightly amused.

Thanks fer makin a lad feel special, Dallen, he muttered under his breath, knowing the great white horse-shaped smart-aleck beneath him had very keen ears.

::Dont mention it,:: came the cheerfully cheeky reply.

Mags was wearing red rather than Herald Trainee Grays because his Kirball teams color was redalthough to be strictly accurate, only his padding and helmet were red. But since the Kirball field was deliberately awash with dangerous obstacles, the players wore full-body protection, so very little of his Grays were showing. The same went for the rest of his teammatesunrecognizable in padded helmet in red, metal face-guard in red, neck collar, shoulder pads, upper and lower arm braces, elbow and knee cups, thigh protection, chest and backplate, and armored boots. They looked more prepared for combat than a game.

Not that most people would ever have recognized this as a game field either. Gullies corrugated the field, which also contained a major ravine, little hills with abrupt drop-offs, stone fences as well as rail fences, culverts, bridges, and even a stream that led into the river. There were no big hills, but there were bits of very steep slope, enough to make even the most sure-footed Companion pause. It most closely resembled the obstacle course, or perhaps a steeplechase racecourse. But unlike the obstacle course, there was no pattern, no obvious path you were supposed to take around the field. It was, in fact, far more random than nature would have created, a calculated randomness that ensured that there were no easy places anywhere except in front of the goals.

At either end were two identical little stone buildings, with ramps up to the tops of them. The ramps had been stone too when the game had first been played; now they were stone and rammed earth, and the squat towers were buried to their ramparts in the rammed earth. After the first four games, the stone ramps had been deemed a bit too narrow and dangerous, and earthen slopes made sure there were no abrupt drop-offs. Flagpoles thrust up from the tops of the towers, flying pennants in the team colors, red for South and green for West, flapping bravely from the tower-tips in a brisk breeze. They needed that breeze today; it was wicked hot. It wasnt only nerves making Mags sweat. The bathing room was going to suffer a stampede.

Beneath him, his Companion, Dallen, was as steady as a statue, which made him feel steadier. It wasnt nerves that bothered him so much as the ever-recurring dread that he would somehow let the team down. He wasnt the only one who felt that way, though, so he was in good company. He knew this because he could sense it. He wasnt just a Mindspeaker who could make himself heard by anyone whether they had the Gift or not; he had just a touch of Empathy too. Enough to be useful most of the timeenough to tell him that his teammates were fighting similar knots in their guts.

The emotional stakes were much, much higher today than they had ever been before. The Kirball game they were playing was part of this concluding day of a week of presentations, tours, and demonstrations put on by all three Collegia for the benefit of the parents and relatives of Trainees and the townsfolk of Haven. Valdemar was bigger than ever, with Trainees coming from farther afield. The Collegia were changing; some people liked the changes, while others were fighting any change at all. The King wanted to show what the results here were, and he didnt want even a hint of elitism or a shadow of secrecy to color peoples perceptions of the Collegia. He reckoned the best way to nip rumors in the bud would be to throw open the doors for a general look around.

::Give us a slosh of that water then, would you?:: Dallen craned his neck around and opened his mouth; Mags obligingly poured most of the water from the half-gallon sized bucket the team runner had just brought them down Dallens throat. A lot of it sloshed out of Dallens mouth but enough of it went down to quench his thirst. Mags tossed the empty bucket to the boy, who ran it back to the sidelines to be refilled. Having a team runner was a good ideaespecially as the team runners were mostly from the Healers Collegium. They generally knew when you needed something without needing to be asked, since the ones with Healing Gift also had Empathy.