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Sent by some unknown power or powers at the pleading of King Valdemar himself, it was the Companions who chose new Heralds, forging between themselves and their Chosen a mind-to-mind bond that only death could sever. To the unknowing eye, a Companion would seem little more than an extraordinarily graceful white horse. Such a system might have seemed ripe for abuse- it would have been, but for the Companions. The Heralds served many functions they were administrative overseers, dispensers of justice, information gatherers, even temporary military advisors answerable only to the Monarch and their own circle of peers. Governing such an ill-assorted lot of subjects might have been impossible- had it not been for the Heralds of Valdemar. In point of fact, the one rule by which the monarchs of Valdemar governed their people was "There is no 'one, true way.'" In part due to the nature of its founders, the monarchs of Valdemar welcomed fugitives and fellow exiles, and the customs and habits of its people had over the years become a polyglot patchwork. Founded by the once-Baron Valdemar and those of his people who had chosen exile with him rather than facing the wrath of a selfish and cruel monarch, it lay on the very western-and-northernmost edge of the civilized world. Humans are resilient creatures, however, and it was not overlong before the population once again was on the increase, and folk began to move westward again, building new kingdoms out of the wilderness. The land quickly turned to wilderness and was given over to the forest and the magically-engendered creatures that had been used to fight those wars, while the people who remained fled to the eastern coastline, there to resume their shattered lives. Long ago- so long ago that the details of the conflict are lost and only the merest legends remain- the world of Velgarth was wracked by sorcerous wars. Microsoft LIT edition ISBN: 0-7420-9071-XĮbook conversion and distribution powered by
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DARKOVER NOVEL (with Marion Zimmer Bradley)