- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (Sep 8 1988)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0747231621
- ISBN-13: 978-0747231622
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 141 g
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The story opens with Runa being stalked by a large, invisible beast. When it appears it is a silver striped, sabetooth tiger, longer than Runa's horse. This Silver cat announces that Runa is its "meat" but does not attack her.
Exploring further, Runa discovers a land where the skeletons of the plague dead remain unburied. It is also infested with outlaws. She rescues a young boy whose father has been killed and learns that the land was once under the care of "the Burdened Ones", the Silver Cat Mantic and Margrave. The Margrave was the war leader and hunter, the Mantic a magic wielder. Together they provided protection, sustenance and healing for the "Tiller Folk." But about 150 years earlier the Margrave and Mantic had been deposed and killed in an uprising. Since that time the land had suffered. Anyone who had attempted since then to take over the Castellum where the Burdened ones had ruled has been destroyed by the magical guardians.
Her interest piqued, Runa manages to establish herself in the Castellum and begins to surround herself with the Tiller folk, but she finds herself unable to perform the roles of both the Margrave and the Mantic. The Silver Tiger is the guardian spirit of the land who chooses the Mantic and mMrgrave.
Then, one day, a bearded and braided barbarian, accompanied by a dozen followers pounds at the gate of the Silver cat castellum with the warning that there savage cannibals are coming their way. The savages are being herded their way by the other local leaders because they do not recognize Runa as a proper Mantic despite her possession of two horses and her undoubted skill at sorcery.
This is the story of how Runa and her barbarian come to terms with one another and with the requirments of being burdened by responsibility for other people. From two separate cultures, neither completely understands the other, but they are forced to learn to cooperate and respect one another abilities in order to survive.
This book, despite some small awkwardness in style is definitely a keeper.
Throw in a lot of horses and all i can wonder, repeatedly, is why there isn't any more! I wish there was a way to contact this writer and beg for another book.