FROM THE PUBLISHER

This exciting new anthology includes a new novella featuring Mercedes Lackey's most popular heroines, Tarma (one of the sword-sworn and most feared of all warriors) and Kethry (who wields magic and weapons for the greater good), whose fates are suddenly bound together in blood by the powers that control their destinies. Also included in the unique volume is the complete collection of Lackey's short stories about these two brave sisters as they answer the call of their destinies with sword and sorcery! • 3.5 million copies of Mercedes Lackey's DAW books in print! • A fantastic collection that contains an all-new novella by Mercedes Lackey! • Every Mercedes Lackey title has made the Locus bestseller list • Beautiful cover art by Jody Lee

FROM THE CRITICS

VOYA - Marlyn Roberts

Oathblood, part of Lackey's popular Valdemar series Vows & Honor, is a sort of compilation that includes ten short stories and a novella (although only the latter is new). The subjects of the stories are Tarma and Kethry, the two ex-mercenary sword-sisters who run the schools in Haven; this is the first time that their various short stories have been collected in one volume. The collection begins with Sword-Sworn, the first Tarma and Kethry story, which describes how the two women met and why they became bloodsworn. The remaining tales, in more or less chronological order, fill in some of the details of Tarma and Kethry's lives leading up to their "retirement" and the founding of their school. Of course, there are the two other novels-Oathbound (DAW, 1988) and Oathbreakers (DAW, 1989)-that fit into the scheme somewhere, too. These stories display Lackey's usual inventiveness and skill with words. For lovers of Lackey's previous Valdemar stories and characters, this book will be joyfully experienced. These readers will find it on their own and devour it; those readers who are not fantasy, Lackey, or Valdemar aficionados probably will not care. VOYA Codes: 5Q 2P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

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