Within the Eastern Empire, Duke Kordas Valdemar rules a tiny, bucolic Duchy that focuses mostly on horse breeding. Anticipating the day when the Empire's exploitative and militant leaders would not be content to leave them alone, his father gathered magicians in the hopes of one day finding a way to escape and protect the people of the Duchy from tyranny. One of the Duchy's mages find there is a way to place a Gate at a distance so far from the Empire...

Talia, Herald to the Queen of Valdemar, travels to a neighboring realm to investigate a prince's proposal to marry the Queen's heir, but discovers an evil plot to destroy Valdemar.

"Set in the beloved and bestselling world of Valdemar, this first book in a new trilogy returns to the tales of the majestic gryphons. On the border between Valdemar and the deadly Pelagirs Forest, the gryphon hero Kelvren returns from a near-fatal self-sacrifice that won him the approval of Valdemar's ground troops, but caused a diplomatic crisis. Frustrated by his lack of a hero's welcome, Kelvren is talked into helping with an expedition by his...

"Anna May Jones is the daughter of a coal miner, but a sickly constitution has kept her confined to the house for most of her life. Hoping to improve her daughter's health-and lessen the burden on their family-Anna's mother sends her to live with her Aunt Jinny, a witchy-woman and an Elemental Master, in a holler outside of Ducktown. As she settles into her new life, Anna learns new skills at Aunt Jinny's side and discovers that she, too, has a gift...

In this chronicle of the early history of Valdemar, Mercedes Lackey's bestselling world, a thirteen-year-old orphan named Magpie escapes a life of slavery in the gem mines when he is chosen by one of the magical Companion horses of Valdemar to be trained as a Herald. Thrust into the center of a legend in the making, Magpie discovers talents he never knew he had--and witnesses the founding of the great Heralds' Collegium.

Herald Mags, the King of Valdemar's Herald Spy, has been developing a network of young informants who operate on the streets and also in the halls and kitchens of the wealthy and highborn. His wife Amily is King's Own Herald and finds it useful to be underestimated for there are dark things stirring in the shadows of Haven. Someone has discovered many secrets of the women of the Court and the Collegia and is using those secrets to terrorize and bully...

Rebuilding their city in the ten years after a magical Cataclysm kills their leader and forces them to the white cliffs by the Western Ocean, the people of Urthos must fight the Court of the Black Kings to keep their hard-won home.

Mags was a Herald of Valdemar. But he had once lived the brutal life of a child slave. When he was Chosen by his Companion Dallen, his young life was saved, and he slowly adjusted to being well fed, educated, and treasured as a trainee in the Herald's Collegium at Haven. Singled out by the King's Own Herald, Mags would thrive in his secret training as a spy. His unusually strong Gift--an ability to Mindspeak and Mindhear anyone, not just others who...

Baron Eric von Rothbart, a powerful sorcerer, hunts down women who have betrayed men and transforms them into swans who can only resume their true forms by moonlight. His lonely daughter Odile, who watches the flock and studies spells, longs vainly for his approval. One day von Rothbart tells Odette, the swan princess, that she can break the spell by winning and holding a man's faithful love for one month. He's even chosen a candidate, Prince Siegfried....

Kellen Tawadon, son the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in training-all men, for women were unfit to practice magic-memorized the intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council. Then he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic-or did they find him? The three slim...