In the first story, Tides of War by Dylan Birtolo, we follow a freshly-minted soldier in the Valdemar army who is about to see his first real battle in a Karse border skirmish. While Eranel feels he is ready for the fight ahead, the results of his first battle are far from great. He survives the fight, but with an injury that puts him in the hospital tent. As Eranel recovers from his wounds, he starts to realize that the battle left more than physical wounds and now he must decide how to handle the mental troubles he finds himself in, with regards to frontline combat. Eranel must struggle to reconcile his desire to help the army with his growing belief that he can't be a fighter.
In Kristin Schwengel's A Time for Prayer, we get some interesting insight into the lives of the Karsite. In this story, the priest of the Sunlord for a small Karsite border village has passed away. In the wake of the priest's death, it is up to his apprentice to step up and start taking over the previous priest's responsibilities. Unfortunately, that person has unofficially been Fidesa, a woman. Based on the rules of the church, no woman could ever really become a priest of the Sunlord, but she is the only person trained well enough in the rituals to continue Father Derigal's role. Fidesa is wrought with worry about what will happen when the church sends a representative to look over the village and, theoretically, confirm Derigal's acolyte as the new local priest. She can't see how the outsiders will see anything but a woman trying to pose as a priest, and if they do see what they shouldn't, it could be more than just her life on the line.
The Ghost of the High Hills by Stephanie Shaver features Herald Challen and her wife, Aesha, a Shin'a'in. When Challen hears a mental cry that is suddenly silenced, she is compelled to investigate the area and track down exactly what caused it. What Challen and Aesha find in the High Hills is someone in need of some unusual help, help it seems, Challen and Aesha are just the right people to supply.
Unsavory by Jennifer Brozek features Tressa, a character Brozek introduced in the previous anthology. Tressa is a baker that now works in Haven's Palace. While she spends much of her time cooking for those that live and learn in the palace, she also spends a good bit of time experimenting with her baking and learning new and interesting ways to combine ingredients. Tressa's day takes an odd twist though when she learns that Sweeper, the stray dog that is often found around the kitchens, is sick. She rushes Sweeper to a healer with Animal Mind Speech in the hopes of learning exactly what happened. When she learns that the dog was poisoned, she can't help but wonder if someone is attempting to do the same to the palace's inhabitants.
Elizabeth Vaughan's long running miniseries focusing on the Lady Cera of Sandbriar continues with the story Final Consequences. In this story, Cera learns that Haven is recalling two of her trusted advisors, Masters Jebren and Xenos, back to the Collegium. Cera finds her feelings over the change conflicted. While she understands that Jebren and Xenos have no choice but to return, she can't see how Sandbriar could run smoothly without them around. As she works through her various feelings, she decides that she must do what is best for the estate in the long run, and not just herself. By the end of this story, Cera will have made a few interesting, and surely life-altering, decisions.
Hearts Are Made for Mending by Dayle A. Dermatis follows Herald Maglia, who has returned from a border skirmish with intense PTSD. In the weeks since she has returned to Haven, she can only find peace and safety in the stables next to her Companion, Elyth. In her time in the stables, she makes friends with one of the workers, and it will take a fierce need, driven by the danger her new friend finds himself in, to get her on her feet again and start moving towards recovery.
In Anthea Sharp's A Gift of Courage, the miniseries focusing on Healer Trainee Tarek Strand continues. In this story, Tarek finds himself jealous of a bard who is returning to the Collegium to teach. The jealousy comes from the fact that he obviously has strong feelings, as well as a long history with Shandara Tem, the Bardic Trainee that Tarek has been growing fond of in his time at the Collegium. Tarek must sort through his own feelings, as well as attempt to decipher how Shandara feels, if he is going make it through the rest of his time as a trainee.
Like Elizabeth Vaughan and Anthea Sharp, Michele Lang adds another entry into her long-running miniseries following Sparrow and Cloudbrother. In Sacrifices of the Heart, Sparrow is sent out on her first mission in her new role as ambassador to the loved ones of Heralds. Where Sparrow and Cloudbrother's relationship has always been Sparrow following her husband's calling and circuits around Valdemar, this new role puts her in the lead and that alone makes her nervous. When Sparrow encounters an odd talking crow, she knows that her first mission has truly begun. In following the bird, she and Cloudbrother are reminded of a Herald with the ability to control birds who recently died. It seems the fallen Herald has one last mission of her own and she needs Sparrow's help in order to complete it.
In They Don’t Burn Children by Louisa Swann, we get another glimpse into Karsite life, and once again, it isn't a flattering one. In this story, we follow Riann, a young child who is running from her former life with a baby and a goat in tow. Riann knows she has visions and she knows that her people do not like magic, at least not magic the priests themselves don't control. As Riann tries to survive in the wild, all she can think of is getting to the Valdemar border in the hopes of crossing over to the place she heard that they don't burn children.
In the next story, Out of Bounds by Charlotte E. English, we get a tale from a very different young girl's perspective. Here, Mariana is privileged and wealthy and dreams of one day being Chosen. As her eighteenth birthday approaches, she knows for sure that a Companion will appear and whisk her away to Haven. And what would you know, a Herald appears in town accompanying a Companion seeking a new Chosen. Unfortunately, Mariana isn't that Chosen; instead it is a childhood friend of hers. But when that friend can't be found, Mariana must push down her ill-tempered feelings in order to help everyone find the other girl, especially when Mariana realizes that her friend could be in a very dangerous location.
Elisabeth Waters also continues her miniseries focusing on people gifted with animal mind speech. In A Clutter of Cats, Lena is startled awake when she feels that someone is drowning a litter of kittens somewhere nearby. When she finds the man who was trying to get rid of the litter, Lena quickly adds a new edict for the people living on her lands, one that should help reduce unwanted litters and, hopefully, reduce the chances of a similar commotion. As it turns out, letting something like this happen close to a temple filled with animal mind speakers can cause quite a disturbance. This isn't the end of this story, though, and a Companion's presence on her lands might be just the final answer she needs to a lingering issue around the situation.
In an offshoot of the Herald Marli miniseries, Brigid Collins' Ghost Cider follows the former bandit Kimfer, whose life was altered in his encounter with Marli in the last book's entry into this series. While Kimfer is attempting to stay on the straight and narrow, his current job isn't fully on the up and up. Kimfer is a wagon driver for a tour group exploring the Ghost Mill, a supposedly haunted mill that produces a cider that the owners claim is touched by "more than one kind of spirit." When a traveling bard named Simen comes to town to look into the paranormal events surrounding the Ghost Mill, Simen and Kimfer will end up discovering exactly what is haunting the area and figuring out how they need to help ease its pain.
The longstanding Watchmen series by Fiona Patton gets another entry in this anthology. In The Beating the Bounds, Haven is preparing for a ceremony that happens every five years. During this time, the different precincts march around the borders of their jurisdictions and, ostensibly, make sure everyone knows which peacekeepers are responsible for which parts of the city. This year, Corporal Aiden Dann of the Iron Street Watch House is in charge of the Beating of the Bounds for their area, and determined to make sure it goes smoothly, he is going to visit each place a marker is supposed to be kept a day early so that the markers can be found and properly displayed. If anything, Aiden knows that it's always a time-consuming hassle to track down where the different shop owners have stuffed the markers since the last Beating of the Bounds, so hopefully getting the dirty work out the way the day before will make for a smoother event when the ceremony actually kicks off.
In Stepping Up, Angela Penrose continues to focus on Bardic Trainee Bruny, a girl who was plucked up from her village when her bardic talents were recognized and enrolled in the Bardic Collegium. While Bruny continues to be self-conscious because she is several years older than her classmates, she is also strongly motivated to prove herself. In this story, Bruny finds herself helping a collection of newlings that are just starting to learn their way around the Collegium, and when she learns that one of the young girls is being harassed by another student, Bruny takes action, something she might ultimately have to pay for, even if it was the right thing to do.
The Measure of Imagination is the second story that Paige L. Christie has contributed to the Valdemar anthology series, and, like her previous entry, this one follows a young woman with dreams of being a Royal Guard. In the last story, Teig, a woman known for tall tales, ends up uncovering a Dream Eater in her village. While Teig doesn't feel any closer to achieving her goals at becoming a guard, she has once again started noticing some rather unusual behavior from several of the inn's guests. As she gently probes the customers, she finds their stories don't quite make sense, but what could really be going on? Is one of them in danger? Is the danger from one of the other patrons or from something else entirely? Whatever is going on, it's clear that Teig's journey is only just getting started.
Puppies & Ponies by Phaedra Weldon is another insight into the Karsite people and their harsh treatment of potential magic users. Harris Yerger is a blind man that has a secret, he can find things that are lost. Well, that's not really the secret. The fact that he uses some kind of magic to do it is, and it's a secret he keeps well-guarded because the Karsite Priests will not let him live if they learn of his gifts. When Harris successfully finds something that is lost, he is always quick to find a mundane reason, but when he learns that his long-time friend, a Karsite soldier, is lost in the woods, he knows he will risk everything to find him. When word of the soldier's recovery reaches his superiors, scrutiny comes down on Harris and he has to make some hard decisions, ones that won't just affect him, but also his family and the family of his friend as well.
In The Gift of Twins, Brenda Cooper returns to telling a story about the Redhaired Twins. This story takes place some time after Rhiannon and Dionne have graduated, but they are still early in their careers. In The Gift of Twins, the pair are on the road with Herald Moren and the trio are traveling around Valdemar enlisting people in the army in order to help with coming battles. While Rhiannon refuses to use her bardic abilities to convince anyone to join the army, she does let her music ease the worries of those around her in order to put the people in a more receptive mood. Similarly, Dionne's gentle healing also helps to warm the people to Moren's message. In one such village, they encounter another musician who seems to immediately put Rhiannon on guard, though she can't say why. Before the night is over, Rhiannon will end up in a kind of musical battle with the other performer, and Dionne could be caught in the middle, despite Rhiannon's promise to never use her abilities on her twin ever again.
Ron Collins continues to tell stories about the Kyree Nwah in No Simple Kyree. Over the past couple of months, Kade has found his place in the Collegium, but the time in Haven has left Nwah anxious. When Nwah can't take the city any more, she decides to return home and leave her friend behind to his new life. Unfortunately, Nwah soon finds herself in danger, and while she is not defenseless, she is having a hard time staying ahead of the trouble. When Kade senses her trouble, he wants to help Nwah, but there are many conflicting emotions at play between both characters as they try to work out how their relationship can continue while Kade lives in Haven and Nwah can't stay in the large city any longer.
The Upper Air by Terry O’Brien was probably my favorite story in this collection. While Boundaries had a lot of interesting perspectives, this one was unique, even among this group. This story takes place in the Silver Gryphon Training Academy and follows two young gryphons enrolled in the academy. Tarresk is recovering from a risky flight higher than anyone else dares to attempt and Sheedrra is tasked with trying to figure out what Tarresk was trying to do, and why. As the two gifted students get to know each other, Sheedrra starts to understand the younger gryphon's plans and even starts to go along with them. Can the pair break the height limit and fly to a level others have only ever dreamed of? What will they find in the vaulted Seventh Cloud-Height Layer?
As is tradition, the final story in this collection is by Mercedes Lackey herself. In the short story Boundaries, a Herald has been tracking a group of bandits near the Karse border. When he finds their trail takes them into the neighboring country, he must decide if he should abandon the chase, or essentially, invade hostile territory. Not wanting to have to pick up the trail again the next time the bandits came back into Valdemar, Herald Lagan continues his hunt and confronts the band of thieves.
Unfortunately, the fight doesn't go as smoothly as he would like, and while he is able to deal with the bandits, he is knocked out. When he wakes up, he finds himself in the care of a healer for a small border town on the Karse side of the line. During his short time recovering, Lagan learns more about the Karse culture and has to confront an interview from a Karsite priest who was drawn by the commotion on the border. Lagan has his work cut out for him if he is going to get back to Valdemar without being discovered.
Like the other Valdemar anthology collections, Boundaries: Tales of Valdemar - Book 15 is filled with a wide variety of stories. Many continue the tales of characters the authors have developed and several are one-off stories that show an interesting slice of life in this world. In all cases though, they help to enhance Lackey's world in a way I don't see other authors doing. Seriously, can you imagine any other epic fantasy writer not only giving other authors the ability to add to their worlds, but in a way that provides a level of validity that an official anthology series lends? For most authors, these stories would be considered little more than fan fiction, but by having them in an official collection like these are, these stories are a part of the Valdemar world just as if Lackey had written them all herself. I continue to applaud Lackey's decision to let her world grow in this unique way and can't wait for the next installment.
