A short fantasy story for the winter holidays! Early in the new year, Sister Mirabelle of the Linder Church of the Lady is sent to Ragnor Bella to investigate rumours of a saint. Her job is to determine whether it's magic, trickery, or even, just possibly, a real miracle. Taking refuge from the snow and wind in the town's small bookstore, she encounters one Jemis Greenwing, who has a few curious things to relate to her.

This story takes place after Plum Duff (Greenwing & Dart #6) and does contain references to certain major events from earlier in Greenwing & Dart. However, if you don't mind a few spoilers, it's also a good introduction to Jemis Greenwing and thus an admirable entry point to the series—a taster, rather like at the grocery store ...

In the cities along the river Ihil, the nomad tribes of the Middle Desert are almost as legendary as the gods. Sardeet is the youngest daughter of the Bandit Queen of the Oclaresh, but her father was a man of the city, and after her husband's death, he brings her to her uncle to recover from her grief.

She walks veiled and silent, as befits one who is rumoured to be the widow of a god, and the people of the city whisper about how beautiful she must be for those rumours to be abroad. They generally dismiss the other part of the story, that the reason her husband is dead is because her sister killed him.

Sardeet's sister Pali, however, knows that this is true—and that there are consequences.

The Warrior of the Third Veil is the second story of those about the Sisters Avramapul. It takes place after The Bride of the Blue Wind. While you do not need to have read The Bride of the Blue Wind, you will probably enjoy this one better having done so.

The tanà holds the fire of the community. Thirteen-year-old Kip's always felt a bit of an outsider, but he knows he has what it takes to become the next tanà. He just needs to persuade his Buru Tovo that he's ready for the next step of his apprenticeship. And then take it—but that's easy, right?

A novelette of approximately 11,000 words.

Magic is out of fashion.
Murder, like romance, is always a possibility.

The journey home from Orio City was supposed to be straightforward. Avoid being captured by brigands or agents of the criminal gangs; try not to cause any further spiritual or magical shocks; and make it over the mountains before winter closes in. Jemis Greenwing and his best friend Mr. Dart are both fairly sure it's too late to prevent Mr. Dart's new cousin Jullanar Maebh from thinking them utterly mad.

A sudden blizzard drives Jemis and his friends to seek refuge in an eccentric country gentleman's even more eccentric house. They only want to stay out the storm without revealing all their secrets: but the other guests have secrets of their own, and Mr. Dart's ability to hear the inanimate has some unforeseeable consequences.

Blizzards. Unicorns. Ciphers. Noblesse oblige. A budding romance. And that's before the murder.

Book Five of Greenwing &...]]> Sat, 18 Apr 2020 13:01:15 +0300 https://gay-lesbian.library.land/victoria-goddard/610710-the_return_of_fitzroy_angursell.html https://gay-lesbian.library.land/victoria-goddard/610710-the_return_of_fitzroy_angursell.html

Fitzroy Angursell is a folk hero out of recent legend, but out of legend nonetheless. In his songs, he told of how he and his friends of the Red Company adventured around the Empire of Astandalas and far afield. He claimed to have romanced the Moon and stolen from the Sun, to have hunted the White Stag across the length and breadth of Fairyland, to have crashed a party in the very heart of the Palace of Stars and thumbed his nose at the Emperor of Astandalas.

People remember him for his songs and his wit, for his magic and his friendships, and those who had the fortune to meet him are always waiting for the catch.

For Fitzroy Angursell was by all accounts a conman extraordinaire.

But there never was a con. When he said he was a son of a great family, caught under a grievous enchantment, descendant of myths and magi, heir of the Prince of the White Forest and of the Emperor-Mage Aurelius Magnus and all the rest, he was telling the exact and utter truth.

Thrice-cursed bard and warrior-elf Tamsin wakes up in Elfland after what might or might not have been his death, healed and hale for the first time in millennia. Somewhat confused but not entirely unhappy with this turn of events, he sets off in the hopes of finding a way home ...

It's not actually illegal to be a wild mage.

Terec reminds himself of this, often.

Nor is it illegal to go north.

He reminds himself of that, too.

Terec was born with a wild talent for fire, and can no longer suppress it. Soon he will not be able to hide it, and he fears it will burn out of control, no longer singeing his bed-linens but hurting those he loves.

If you head south from his family's lands, you go to Astandalas of the emperors, heart of the empire, rich with magic. You go seeking fame and fortune and adventure.

If, on the other hand, you head north, towards the edge of the Empire, the edge of the known world, the edge of the Wild ... well. You might find adventure, but you won't be looking for it.

Féonie Durgalen was all of nineteen when she was offered the position of costumier to the new Lord Chancellor of Zunidh, Cliopher Mdang. She seized the opportunity when it was presented for her own ambition and the sake of her family—but after he instituted a universal basic income, she was willing to go to any lengths to ensure Lord Mdang looked his best when he became Viceroy.

A companion short story to The Hands of the Emperor.

Northwest Oriole is a land of small countries and many universities, where scholarship is greatly regarded. Choosing a school is thus a matter of great weight, no matter your rank or wealth.
Hal has always known where he's going, because he is the Imperial Duke of Fillering Pool, and the dukes have always gone to either Zabour or Tara. Since Zabour fell into the sea, it'll have to be Tara.
Theoretically.
At some point he'll have to write them.
Clary Sage is a novella loosely connected to the Grenwing & Dart series, taking place before those books commence.

Hal's university career ends quite satisfactorily for himself, but with heartbreak, drama, and painful ignominy for his best friend Jemis. Nevertheless, Hal stood with Jemis when academic argument turned violent, and he'll stand with him now as he finds his feet again ...

Traveller's Joy is set after Clary Sage and before the beginning of Stargazy Pie.