The last thing he remembered was the darkness in the hollow below the stone, and the dogs belting overhead, cheated of their quarry - Dekteon, sometimes called Red, the rebellious runaway slave. Why was he lying now, here, in this wood of burning red leaves, with a cold red sunrise in the sky? What sky? And when the cart came so suddenly out of the wood there was something strange about it, too. The horse that drew it had the feet of a bear, and the man who drove it had phosphorescent eyes, or so it seemed to Dekteon. Yet it appeared he was expected. 'Come,' the man called. 'Come, hurry and get in.' Dekteon was afraid. Where would the cart take him? 'You have no other place to go to,' the pale man said. And that was true enough. 'I've nothing to lose,' said Dekteon, and the words seemed ominous. Yet how could he know what worlds there might be to lose - or win? This edition was published as #15 in the MagicQuest series by Ace Books, a reissuing of classic young adult fantasy novels.
Author
Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7." Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress. Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971. Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing. Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror. Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s. Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
