Mercedes Lackey - Brightly Burning

Table of Contents

The pain of the lash....

Lan had stopped thinking some time ago; now all he was doing was feeling . It was pure fear, and barely contained rage that consumed him, the ice of panic, the heat of anger, contending for his mind. There wasnt much room left over for thought.

He struggled to hold in the rage; somehow he felt dimly that if he couldnt keep control over it, something terrible and irrevocable would happen. But the part of him that tried to hang onto a little rational thought was also the part that hurt . The blinding pain of the worst headache he had ever felt without passing out entirely was slowly eroding his ability to hang onto his anger.

The pain of the lash was worse than anything Lan had ever felt. It cut right through the headache, broke his paralyzing fear, and left him with only instinct.

He had to get away! He had to get away, and now!

The fear joined the anger, and together they destroyed the last of his rapidly eroding control over that overpowering rageand the terrible thing that his rage had summoned....

NOVELS BY MERCEDES LACKEY available from DAW Books:

THE HERALDS OF VALDEMAR

ARROWS OF THE QUEEN

ARRROWS 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

KEROWYNS TALE

BY THE SWORD

VOWS AND HONOR

THE OATHBOUND

OATHBREAKERS

OATHBLOOD

BRIGHTLY BURNING

DARKOVER NOVEL

( with Marion Zimmer Bradley )

REDISCOVERY

THE BLACK SWAN

TAKE A THIEF*
KNIGHTS GAMBIT*

THE SERPENTS SHADOW
PHOENIX AND ASHES*
THE GATES OF SLEEP*

Written with LARRY DIXION:

THE MAGE WARS
THE BLACK GRYPHON
THE WHITE GRYPHON
THE SILVER GRYPHON

OWLFLIGHT
OWLSIGHT
OWLKNIGHT

*Forthcoming in hardcover from DAW Books

Copyright 2000 by Mercedes R. Lackey.

eISBN : 978-1-101-11736-1

All Rights Reserved.

For color prints of Jody Lees paintings, please contact:

The Cerridwen Enterprise

P.O. Box 10161

Kansas City, MO 64111

1-800-825-1281

Interior art by Larry Dixon

DAW Book Collectors No. 1150.

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

All resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

First Printing, June 2001

To all the unsung heroes
who stood by
on the evening of December 31, 1999
to ensure that we crossed into the year 2000
with our safety, security, and peace intact.

OFFICIAL TIMELINE FOR THE by Mercedes Lackey

HERALDS OF VALDEMAR SERIES

Sequence of events by Valdemar reckoning

ONE

L AVAN Chitward hated his mothers parties at the best of times, and this one was no exception. When the Guildmaster of the Cloth Merchants Guild beckoned to him, he unconsciously hunched his shoulders, assuming he was about to receive yet another homily on hard work, his third for this particular party.

Here you go, lad, the Guildmaster said, shoving a parcel at him.

Lan gaped at the squarish package in the Guildmasters hands as the babble of partygoers rattled on around him. Words stuck in Lavans throat, uncomfortable and sharp-edged. Oh, gods. Now what am I supposed to say? He was already nervous enough before this guest of his parents singled him out; this only made him more self-conscious. Lavan flushed, forehead sweating, and could only stare at the so-called present that middle-aged, red-faced Guildmaster Howell was holding out to him, and tried to think of a response. Any response. Well, maybe not any response; if he said what he really thought, his father would skin him.

Uhthis isyou really shouldnt have gone to so much trouble, Guildmaster, he managed, his stomach churning, as the older man thrust the package at him with hands from which traces of dye would never disappear as long as he lived. The skin was faintly blue, but the nail bed was indigo, giving Lan the unsettling impression he was taking a package from a corpse. The Guildmaster shoved the packet into Lavans reluctant fingers and let it go, forcing Lan to take it or let it fall. And much as he would have liked to let it fall, he knew that he would never hear the end of it if he did. He fumbled for it and tried not to show how little he wanted it.

His hands closed around it convulsively, and the cloth package fell open, revealing a set of cloth-merchants tools. There was a lens for examining fabric closely, a rule to determine thread count, a small pair of scissors, other thingsexactly what hed dreaded seeing.

It was no trouble, no trouble at all! the Guildmaster said heartily, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he smiled. Ive outfitted six of my own youngsters for the cloth trade, after all, and I cant think how many others Im not even related to! He clapped Lavan heartily on the back, and Lan tried not to wince. Ill be seeing you in and around the Guildhouse before too long, Ill warrant! Just like your big brother!

Ah Lavan mumbled something and ducked his head, his hair dampening with nervous perspiration; as hed hoped, the Guildmaster took his reluctance for shyness, and clapped him on the back again, though a bit gentler this time.

The Guildmaster moved on then, to socialize with the adults, sparing Lavan the task of trying to thank him for a gift the young man didnt in the least want. A quick glance around the crowd in the drawing room showed him that no one was paying any attention to him at the moment, so he hastily rolled up the bundle of tools and shoved it under the cushions on a settle. With any luck, it wouldnt be found until morning, and the servants would assume it belonged to Lans older brother. He rubbed his damp palms against the legs of his trews and straightened, looking about him. What would Lavan do with a bundle of cloth-merchants tools, anyway? He didnt know what half of them were used for!

Nothing, thats what. And I dont want to either. I dont want to do anything with cloth but wear it.

In fact, he intended to escape from this gathering as soon as he dared. All of the first-floor rooms of this town house were packed with his parents guests, all of them important, none of them younger than thirty. It was too hot, too claustrophobic, too loud; the cacophony of voices made his ears ring. The house seemed half its size and it wasnt all that big in the first place, compared with the house Lan thought of as home, back in Alderscroft. This party wasnt intended to entertain anybody under the age of twenty, anyway, even though the stated reason for it was for the members of the Needleworkers and Cloth Merchants Guilds to welcome the whole family to Haven. Lans mother Nelda and his father Archer were already well known to the members of their Guilds. In spite of living in a village a hundred leagues from Haven, their successes had brought them to the attention of nearly everyone in both Guilds in the capital long before this move. This gathering was supposed to be an opportunity for their children to mix and mingle with the real powers in their parents Guilds, and hopefully to attract the attention of a potential master to prentice to. Samael, Lans older brother, was already apprenticed to one of their fathers colleagues; the other children were of an age to be sent to masters themselves, or so Nelda and Archer kept telling them. No child would be apprenticed to his own parents, of course; a parent couldnt be expected to be objective about teaching him (or her). While an oldest son and heir might eventually join his parents in the parents business, it wouldnt be until he had achieved Mastery or even Journeyman status on his own.