Ghost and bard... With the proper schooling young Rune would be one of the greatest bards her world has ever seen. Even if only she knows it. Unfortunately, the daughter of a tavern wench at the Hungry Bear, no matter how talented, doesn't get much in the way of formal training. What she does get is frustrated. One night, to back up a brag she probably wouldn't have made if she weren't so mad, she went up to play her fiddle for the Ghost of Skull Hill. Everyone knows that no one who has ever gone up Skull Hill at night has come down again. Not alive, anyway. But when the ghost appears Rune strikes a bargain: if the ghost tires of her playing before morning her life is his; if he is still listening when the sun glints over yonder hill she will have earned both life and a sack of silver. Let the music begin...

Something is rotten in the state of Gradford... After the affairs recounted in The Lark and the Wren, Robin, a gypsy lass and bard, and Kestrel, semi-fugitive heir to a throne he does not want, have married their fortunes together and travel the open road, seeking their happiness where they may find it. This is their story. But it is also the story of the Ghost of Skull Hill, the very ghost who gave Rune a bag of silver and her start in life rather than her death when she played the night away. Together, the Robin, the Kestrel, and the Ghost will foil a plot to drive all music forever from the land - but first, the Robin and the Kestrel must tame the killer Ghost.

Closely related to the Bardic Voices series this book falls between The Robin & the Kestrel and The Eagle & the Nightingales. The power of choice... A strange pall has settled over Alanda. Everywhere representatives of the Church seek to ferret out unauthorized magic – and music, because it is magic at its roots, has come under suspicion. And that which is suspect, if it cannot be crushed altogether, must be stripped of its mystery, made tame and answerable to the power of the priests. Throughout the lands the Free Bards, those who will not or cannot join the priest-condoned Guild, are being driven away. But all who are Free are free to choose: To flee or to fight.

Let the king be king! Why is the High King of the Human kingdoms not doing his job - and thereby allowing the Church to fill the power vacuum in the human lands of Alanda? This is a matter of some concern to Nightingale and her friends: the Church is becoming ever more overtly hostile to non-human sentients (of which there are several species in Alanda) as well as to anything that that it does not at least indirectly control, such as gypsies and Free Bards. To discover just what is going on, she will join forces with T'fyrr, a birdman with the vistage of a raptor and the voice of an angelic choir. And before the King - and through him the gypsies, Free Bards and non-humans of the twenty kingdoms - is saved they, the Eagle and the Nightingale, will have become if not quite lovers then far more than friends.

A fine feathered fiend... A magical maniac is loose in Alanda. The victims are always women, always lower-class, and the weapon is always a three-sides stiletto, most often found among church regalia. But the killers are never churchmen, and they always commit suicide immediately after the bloody deed. Tal Rufen is just a simple constable. But he really cares about his job, and when one of these muder/suicides happens on his beat he becomes obsessed. His superiors don't care - the victims will never be missed, and their murderers are already justly dead. But every instinct Tal Rufen has cries out that he has seen only one small piece of a bigger and much nastier puzzle.

A command performance by fantasy's grand diva... Mercedes Lackey has, in a few short years, soared to the peak of the fantasy field, and her thousands of enthusiastic readers clamor for more and more. Now comes a volume demonstrating the wide range of her talent, running the gamut from her beloved Bardic fantasies to urban fantasy set in the modern world; from science fiction adventure to chilling horror. And throughout Fiddler Fair, Lackey's sheer storytelling skill will hold the reader spellbound. Learn what happens when animal rights fanatics try to "liberate" genetically reconstructed dinosaurs. Follow Lawrence of Arabia into the desert to meet a power beyond human comprehension; and be with King Arthur, reborn into the present day, when he again gains possession of the enchanted sword Excalibur. And, in a very weird encounter of the most bizarre kind, learn why an alien from a UFO took an unusual interest in a battered Chevy pickup truck. Fiddler Fair is a feast for the multitudes of Lackey fans everywhere – and for new readers, a powerful introduction to the most significant new fantasy writer of the decade. Short stories include: _How I Spent My Summer Vacation Aliens Ate My Pickup Small Print (with Larry Dixon) Last Rights (with Larry Dixon) Dumb Feast Dance Track (with Larry Dixon) Jihad Balance Dragon's Teeth The Cup and the Cauldron Once and Future Fiddler Fair The Enemy of My Enemy _

Rune, Robin, and Nightingale—Together They Will Save Us All (If we're very lucky...) Rune: She ran away from an abusive home to become the greatest violinist her world had ever known—and when The Ghost of Skull Hill tried to stop her, she played him to sleep! Robin: No mean musician herself, she must make her own visit to Skull Hill—to recruit the dreadful ghost to their cause. Nightingale: Alone, she could accomplish nothing. So she joined forces with T'fyrr, a strange nonhuman with the face of a raptor and the voice of an angelic choir. This unlikely set of heroes had the daunting task of saving the King—and through him the Gypsies, Free Bards, and non-humans of the twenty kingdoms. Fortunately, their opponents had no idea how potent a weapon music could be....