In Celebration of Lammas Night
Created by Mercedes Lackey
edited by Josepha Sherman
Copyright 1996
version 2.0 completely edited, compared to original, spell checked. finished March 13, 2004
CONTENTS
Introduction — Josepha Sherman
Lammas Night — Mercedes Lackey
Hallowmas Night — Mercedes Lackey
Harvest of Souls — Doranna Durgin
The Heart of the Grove — Ardath Mayhar
Miranda — Ru Emerson
Demonheart — Mark Shepherd
Sunflower — Jody Lynn Nye
Summer Storms — Christie Golden
A Choice of Many — Mark Garland
The Captive Song — Josepha Sherman
Midsummer Folly — Elisabeth Waters
The Mage — the Maiden and the Hag — S.M. Stirling and Jan Stirling
The Road Taken — Laura Anne Gilman
A Wanderer of Wizard-Kind — Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Circle of Ashes — Stephanie D. Shaver
A Choice of Dawns — Susan Shwartz
Miranda's Tale — Jason Henderson
Lady of the Rock — Diana L. Paxson
Before — Gael Baudino
Introduction
First there was the song.
Several years back, Mercedes Lackey wrote "Lammas Night," a spooky, supernatural ballad that ended with the wizard protagonist facing a very perilous choice that was left to the listener to decide.
Then came the birthday present that wasn't.
Bill Jahnel and friends put together a collection of endings for the song, intending to offer it as a tribute to Mercedes, known to her friends as "Misty." However, the best laid plans often don't come off as intended. The project was shelved for a time, then offered to Baen Books for possible publication. Unfortunately, while this project, in its original form, made a lovely tribute and Misty was quite touched, it was felt that a book made up strictly of endings to a song would have made for rather limited reading.
And so the book now known as Lammas Night was born.
What you hold in your hands is an all-new collection of fantasy stories by some of the brightest stars in the field. Each was given a copy of "Lammas Night" and was told to use it as a springboard for his or her imagination. The only restriction was that their stories must show some tie-in to the original song.
What resulted is a wild range of stories, some traditional, some outright bizarre. Lammas Night is both a tribute to the song and to Misty herself. It is also a chance for readers to enter new worlds of fantasy and see the creative imagination at work.
—Josepha Sherman
Lammas Night
MERCEDES LACKEY
A waning moon conceals her face
Behind a scudding wind-torn cloud.
(a wind-torn shroud)
She wraps herself in its embrace
As in a tattered cloak.
(a shadow cloak)
The wind is wailing in the trees.
Their limbs are warped and bent and bowed.
(so bleak and cowed)
I stand within my circle now
To deal with what I woke.
(I wake—I see, but not yet free.)
A wanderer of wizard kind
I was, until a month ago
(so well I know)
The headman of this village came
And begged that I should stay.
(so cold and fey)
"For since our wizard died," he said
"And why he died we do not know—
(so long ago!)
We have no one to weave us spells
And keep the Dark at bay."
(the dark, so deep: so cold the sleep)
"His house and books are yours, milady,
If you choose but to remain."
(remembered pain)
His offer was too tempting
To be lightly set aside
(remembered pride)
I'd wearied of my travel, being
Plaything of the sun and rain—
(choose to remain—)
This was the chance I'd hoped for—
And I said that I would bide.
(I hope—I pray—and you must stay)
Perhaps if I had been a man,
And not a maid, perhaps if I
Had been less lonely, less alone,
Or less of magic folk—
(the spell-bound broke)
Whatever weakness was in me,
Or for whatever reason why
(my reason why)
Something slept within that house
That my own presence woke.
(You dream so much—I try to touch)
A half-seen shadow courted me,
Stirred close at hand or by my side.
(to bid you bide)
It left a lover's token—one
Fresh blossom on my plate.
(a fragrant bait)
I woke to danger—knew the young
Magician still to Earth was tied—
(for freedom cried)
And tied to me—and I must act.
Or I might share his fate.
(I need your aid, be not afraid)
I found a spell for banishment—
The pages then turned—and not by me!
(look now and see)
The next spell differed by one word,
A few strokes of a pen.
(and read again)
The first one I had seen before,
The spell to set a spirit free;
(so I will be)
The second let the mage-born dead
Take flesh and live again!
(one spell and then I live again)
Now both these spells were equal
In their risk to body and to soul.
(I shall be whole)
And both these spells demanded
They be cast on Lammas Night.
(the darkest night)
And both these spells of spirit
And of caster took an equal toll,
(task to the soul)
But nowhere is it writ
That either spell is of the Light.
(to live and see and touch, to be)
Can it be wise to risk the anger
Of the Gods in such a task?
(yet I must ask)
Yet who am I to judge of who
Should live and who should die?