Arrow's Fall by Mercedes Lackey

By Holly White, guest reviewer

Arrow’s Fall is the third and final book of the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy, after Arrows of the Queen and Arrow’s Flight and is the culmination of the story of Talia, the Queen’s Own Herald.

In Arrow’s Flight, the Weatherwitch gave Talia the following prophecy: "You WILL reclaim what was yours, and no one will ever shake it from you again. You will find your heart’s desire, but not until you have seen the Havens. The Havens will call you, but duty and love will bar you from them. Love will challenge death to reclaim you. Your greatest joy will be preceded by your greatest sorrow, and your fulfillment will not be unshadowed by grief."  In Arrow’s Fall, we learn if the prophecy will be fulfilled.

Talia has returned from her internship circuit journey is now a full Herald. Her new responsibilities sometimes seem more than she even has time to accomplish in a day. Added to that, the Kingdom of Valdemar is facing a new threat:  bandits on the borders are attacking and massacring men, women, and children. Can someone in the Queen’s council be passing information about which villages are least protected?

Also, Talia’s protégé, the Queen’s daughter and Heir, Elspeth, is about to be forced into a political marriage. Talia continually experiences a vague feeling of uneasiness about Elspeth. Although Talia knows this feeling has nothing to do with the impending marriage, she can’t identify just what it IS about.

Meanwhile best friends Kris, Talia, and Dirk are also having a crisis. Talia is in love with homely Dirk, but Dirk thinks she loves handsome Kris. Dirk is in love with Talia as well, but, he is torn between his best friend and the woman he loves and he is fearful of rejection. Kris doesn’t realize that Dirk thinks Talia’s heart belongs to Kris. Also, Kris can’t see why Dirk and Talia don’t trust his uncle Lord Orthallen. Things come to a head when Lord Orthallen creates a rift between all three of them, causing each of them to be angry at both the others. This leaves all three of them bereft of their favorite two confidants in a time when each of them sorely needs a confidant.

Regardless of events in her personal life, Talia is still a Herald with duties to carry out. The Queen sends her on a state visit to a neighboring country to look over Prince Ancar, the intended of Elspeth. Talia leaves on the heels of an unresolved argument with Elspeth. To make matters more complicated, Dirk is sick in bed, with no visitors allowed so Talia must leave that situation unsettled as well as she leaves on another assignment . . . with Kris of all people.

When Kris and Talia arrive in the land of Prince Ancar, they find that something is not as it should be. By the time the truth dawns on Talia and Kris, they are trapped by an enemy who has an ominous ally in possession of a power like none they’ve ever seen. And before it’s over, Talia will give up all hope.
 
Will the bandits finally be defeated once and for all? Will Talia be able to mend her fences with Elspeth, Kris, and Dirk? Will Elspeth be saved from a political marriage? Will Kris and Talia escape Ancar’s country in time to warn the Queen and prevent an all-out war? Will the Heralds be able to defeat this new form of evil in the land of Prince Ancar? And how will the prophecy from the Weatherwitch be fulfilled?

Find out by reading Arrow’s Fall by Mercedes Lackey where the author expertly answers all these questions and brings the trilogy to a moving, but satisfying conclusion. If this kind of book intrigues you, please also see my previous reviews (Arrows of the Queen, Arrows Flight)  and/or my overview of the land of Valdemar. My next review will be on Oathbound, the first in Mercedes Lackey’s Vows and Honor trilogy, also set in the land of Valdemar.

Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey

Reviewed by Holly White

Arrow’s Flight is the sequel to Arrows of the Queen. (Click on the title to read that review; for an overview of the world in which these novels are set click here.)

Talia, the Queen’s Own Herald, has finally completed most of her Herald training, and had earned her Heraldic Whites, the white uniform worn by Heralds. The time had come for her internship, eighteen months riding circuit with a full Herald, for on-the-job training before she can take up her full position and title of Queen’s Own Herald. However, new accomplishments have brought new challenges for Talia.

Elspeth, the daughter of Queen Selenay, was once a spoiled, selfish brat. Talia had tamed the brat, but Elspeth still had not yet been Chosen by a Companion. Since only one who is Chosen can be an heir, Council is pressuring Selenay to select another heir. However, all the Heralds who are viable choices have relatives who might seek to become the power behind the throne. The most outspoken is Lord Orthallen, who, as a member of the Council himself, had also been the one in years past to encourage young Selenay in directions which turned out to be mistakes. Orthallen sought to place his nephew Kris, a handsome young Herald, on the throne someday. It’s a dangerous time for Talia to leave Elspeth and Selenay, but there’s no other option. 

Further complicating Talia’s life are her growing feelings for Dirk, to whom she is strongly attracted in spite of his homeliness. Although Dirk shared her feelings, he said nothing, especially since she has been assigned to ride circuit with his best friend, the good-looking Kris. Dirk has been brutally hurt by women in the past. Now he feared that Talia would do the same, especially since she will be going away with the handsome Kris on her circuit. And so she and Dirk are at an impasse.

To make things even worse, there are problems with Talia’s Gift. Talia is an empath; she has the Gift of sensing and being able to control others’ feelings. She can bring emotional healing to someone who is suffering. However, Talia’s Gift seems to be going rogue. She’s unable to shield herself from others’ emotions and she’s inadvertently projecting her own emotions onto others. Unless she can get her Gift under control, she could accidentally harm herself or others. It would also do significant harm to the reputation of all Heralds. Talia’s problems with her Gift are only magnified when Kris starts asking her questions that make her doubt herself, questions that his Uncle Orthallen have put into his head.

Things come to a head when she and Kris are snowed in all alone at a Herald’s Waystation out in the middle of nowhere, during a severe blizzard without even so much as a shovel to try to dig themselves out. And their Waystation was right at the edge of The Forest of Sorrows, a forest cursed in times past, a forest that seems alive and aware … and is watching them.

As always, Mercedes Lackey has given us a well-plotted, well-characterized trip into a magical place full of adventure, humor, romance, and danger. If this review piques your interest at all, I think you’d thoroughly enjoy reading this book. Mercedes Lackey doesn’t just create memorable challenges for her characters; she creates satisfying solutions, and in such a way that you can’t put the book down.

Be on the lookout next month for the review for the third in the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, called Arrow’s Fall.

Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey

Review by Holly White

Note:  This review follows a series set in Mercedes Lackey's world of Valdemar.  For those unfamiliar with Valdemar, Holly's overview of the series is here.

At the age of thirteen, Talia had to decide to either get married to a person of her parents’ choosing, or to become a celibate servant of the Goddess. For the Holderkin, the barbaric folk who lived on the extreme borders of Valdemar, those were the only two choices available to a young woman. Talia wanted neither. She didn’t want to marry a man who ruled his family like a tyrant, and she certainly didn’t want to give herself to the boredom of lifelong religious servitude. Although Talia’s father was strict, he had allowed Talia to learn to read (an oddity for Holderkin females), and due to the indulgence of a beloved older brother who had died too soon, Talia had also been allowed to own three precious books of her own. And in those books, Talia had read tales of the Heralds.

When confronted by her father’s wives about her choice to get married or to choose religious servitude, Talia blurted out without thinking that she wanted to be a Herald, only after pronouncing the words, realizing it was indeed true. The wives were shocked, of course. To speak of Heralds was considered unseemly, and so no one did. No one dealt with Heralds at all except for the Elders.

Talia escaped the scrutiny of the wives and ran away crying, to her private place in the woods. As she cried alone there, she dreamed of finding acceptance and love. There she met Companion, a horse-like creature ridden by Heralds.  This Companion, Rolan, is without his Herald-- an unusual circumstance.  Indecisive, Talia considered the options. She could never go back to the Hold anyway; after her unseemly and rebellious outburst, they would never allow her to do anything but be a kitchen drudge. Rolan obviously needed to be returned to his owner. So she decided to begin looking for his Herald, and if she couldn’t find him, to return Rolan all the way to the Herald Collegium so that he could be reunited with his Herald.

On her journey, not only did Rolan himself help her, but she met more than one person willing and even eager to help her along her way, with food, changes of clothing, even a bath. But no one would tell her how a Companion could have gotten separated from his Herald, and everyone just told her to go to the Collegium, that she would find out there. At last, after a weary journey, she arrived at the city of Haven, where the Collegium was.

Rolan was joyfully recognized, and Talia was accorded special respect because she rode him. She was taken to see the Herald, a woman named Selenay, who explained that Rolan had Chosen her, and that she was now a Herald Trainee, if she wanted the position. However, Rolan was the Queen’s Own Companion, meaning that Talia had been Chosen to be the Queen’s Own Herald. If she accepted, she would become the queen’s confidante, the one person with whom the Queen could "let her hair down," so to speak. In return, she would be the Queen’s adviser and speak the truth that others might fail to speak for self-serving reasons. She would also have to deal with the Queen's daughter, a spoiled child called the Brat who should be the Heir to the throne,had not been Chosen because of her attitude. It would be up to Talia to turn the Brat into the kind of person that could eventually be Chosen and rule over the kingdom with wisdom and goodness.

If all this wasn’t responsibility and burden enough, Talia was then informed that the previous Queen’s Own Herald had died under suspicious circumstances and that as the new Queen’s Own, her own life might be in danger.

Would Talia accept that position, and all the responsibilities and danger that came with it? And if she did, how would she handle all the new challenges that were to come her way? Although she knows that Companions don’t make mistakes, she still cannot fathom that Rolan Chose … her … a simple Holdgirl. She has no special talents. How could she presume to advise the Queen herself? How would she make friends after learning the hard way at the Hold not to trust anyone? How would she learn to not be afraid of men, after her Holderkin experiences with tyrant men? How would she unmake the Brat? How would she deal with the dangers, both subtle and unsubtle, that came with being Queen’s Own? How would she learn to use and control her newfound powers to the aid of the Queen? And with all of that, how could she NOT choose to be a Herald, and the Queen’s Own Herald at that?

These questions and more are answered as you read the  Heralds of Valdemar trilogy.    The books are well-written and thought-provoking with a bit of everything- adventure, humor, danger, romance, daring, and drama. I was not able to put Arrows of the Queen down until the end, and then I had to immediately read the next book. I have in my home a "Favorites" shelf, a shelf separate from the rest of my bookshelves, and only the very best of my book collection get to sit there. This book rests with the others of its trilogy on my "Favorites" shelf, the same shelf where C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien sit beside Karen Hancock and Kathy Tyers. If authors like these make it to your favorites as well, please read this one for yourself to find out why it made it to mine. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Note:  the next book in the series will be reviewed the first Friday in June!