"Mercedes Lackey - Flights of Fantasy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

are concerned. This is a wonderful collection full of surprises. For Diana
Paxton, the "theme" was bent slightly, including ravens (who are, after all,
carnivorous). From Mike Res-nick comes a little fable that mixes revenge with
reincarnation. From Nancy Asire, a spirit birdтАФ From a dear friend, Dr. Sam
Conway, comes his first published story; I had warned him that I would be
ruthless with it, and if it did not match the standards of the
professionals, it wouldn't make the cut, but to the delight of both of us, it
more than qualified.
And my own contribution, which came out of one of those odd cases of
serendipity when a character demands more attention than the author is
immediately prepared to give her. When I was working on The Black Swan, my own
ver-sion of the tale told in the famous ballet Swan Lake, one of Prince
Siegfried's bridal candidates sudddenly took on a life and personality far
be-yond that of a mere spear-carrier. The falconer-Princess Honoria and her
birds absolutely de-manded to be center stage. Unfortunately, I had another
story to tell than hers. Fortunately, she
fit perfectly well into this venue, and I was happy to give her the spotlight
on a stage of her own, and a story that proves the adage that what is hell to
one may be heaven to anotherтАФ or at least, an escape.
We all hope you enjoy these highly unusual birds, and their flights of
fantasy.
THE TALE OF HRAFN-BUI
by Diana L. Paxson
Diana L. Paxson's novels include her Chronicles of Westria series and her more
recent Wodan's Children series. Her short fiction can be found in the
anthologies Zodiac Fantastic, Grails: Quests of the Dazvn, Return to Avalon,
and The Book of Kings. Her Arthurian novel, Hallowed Isle, is appearing in
four volumes in the next two years, with book one, The Book of the Sword, in
stores now.
THERE was a man called Ketil Olvirson who look up land below Hrafnfjall in the
west part of Iceland. He had two sons, Arnor and Harek. Arnor, who was the
elder, liked best to go a-viking to England and Scotland and the isles, while
Harek stayed home on the farm. On one of his journeys Arnor took captive a
young woman called Groa. His parents were dead by that time, and though his
brother said that no good would come of marriage with a woman who had been a
thrall, he made her his wife.
She bore him a son whom they called Bui, but they had no other child.
About this time Harek also took a wife, named Hild. They all lived together in
this way for some years, until Bui was fourteen years old. It happened then
that an old shipmate asked Arnor to go on a trading voyage to Norway. At the
end of the summer, when they looked for his return, he did not come. It was
not until the next spring that they heard that the ship had gone down with all
hands off the Sudhreyar Isles.
When that news came, Harek sat down in his brother's high seat and Hild said
that as there were no witnesses to Groa's marriage, she was now their thrall.
When Bui tried to defend his mother, Harek told his men to beat the boy with
staves and drive him off the farm. They dragged him to the brook that comes
down from Hrafn-fjall, and there they left him.
But Bui did not die.
"Quo-oork!"