The Misenchanted Sword /A Legend of Ethshar/ A LAND AT WAR / Ethshar and the Northern Empire have been at war for hundreds of years. Hardly anyone alive remembers why, or over what. The tempest, turmoil, and war are endless, and the killing more endless still. The war has become not just a way of life, but an institution; no one dares to dream that it could end. Not even Valder of Kardoret, Ethsharitic Scout, trapped behind enemy lines. / A MISENCHANTED SWORD / But now everything has at a moment of great need, a hermit wizard crafted Valder a magic sword called Wirikidor—a blade at once cursed and enchanted, a misenchanted blade that makes him unbeatable. / A LEGEND OF ETHSHAR / Soon the tides of battle will turn, and once they've turned they'll turn forever.

A SINGLE SPELL Tobas had been lucky to find a wizard to take him on as apprentice. But then the wizard died suddenly and unexpectedly after teaching Tobas only a solitary spell, and the youth was too old to find a new master. How could he earn a living when all the magic he could do was light fires? A DESTINY UNFOLDING In the Small Kingdoms there were dragons to be slain, princesses and gold to be won, magic castles, witches who knew the secret of immortality, and other treasures. But how could a wizard with a single, simple spell hope to find them and win them?

A STAR RISES IN THE SOUTH When the foreigners confronted Sterren in Ethshar of the Spices he was uneasy; when they all but abducted him, taking him to an obscure kingdom in the south, he knew he was in a terrible predicament. A predicament some might actually find appealing—he was by heredity the Ninth Warlord of Semma, least of the small kingdoms; he was a noble, and his rank afforded him material privileges, even in a place as insignificant and obscure as Semma. But the office also carried certain terrible he was to win the war the stupid King had stirred up by his arrogance. Two larger and stronger Kingdoms were preparing to invade Semma. And if the country lost, the first thing likely to be forfeit was the life of the Warlord. And if it won . . . if it won, the fate and shape of Ethshar would change forever. For deep in the south there are secrets of magic not even Sterren can imagine. A LEGEND OF ETHSHAR

It was definite — Dumery had no magical talent at all. He could never fulfill his dream to become a wizard's apprentice. Hurt, angry, and mortally disappointed, he despaired of ever choosing a trade. But then Dumery spied a so-called great wizard humbling himself before a man selling dragon's blood — the precious stuff that made difficult spells work. If Dumery couldn't be a wizard, maybe he could become a dragon-hunter and have all those scornful wizards crawling to him. So, leaving his family, city, and comfortable home, Dumery began trailing Kensher, the man in brown — even though Kensher said he didn't need a dragon-hunting apprentice. But when Dumery finally caught up with Kensher, he would discover Kensher's great secret of how the precious fluid was obtained — a secret from which only Kensher's kin could profit. Once again, Dumery would be left without career or future. Unless . . .

Kelder had always dreamed of a life more exciting than what waited for him on the family farm. So when a fortune-teller predicted a glorious future, that he'd roam free and unfettered and be a champion of the lost and forlorn, he immediately set out on the fabled Great Highway to Shan in search of adventure. But once he was on the road, life was hardly as exciting as he'd hoped—until he met Irith. She was the most beautiful girl, and the only girl with wings, Kelder had ever seen. They teamed up to see the world, and then Kelder found adventures aplenty: there were bandits and demons, and there were curses to lift, wizards to seek spells from, orphans to champion, and legendary cities to visit. For the young and carefree, life on the Great Highway was filled with fun, action, and magic. But Kelder began to wonder about his beautiful companion. Irith certainly had seen a lot of the world for one so young—and everyone along the highway seemed to know her . . . Soon, discovering Irith's secrets became Kelder's greatest adventure of all . . .

Tabaea was an ordinary thief, sneaking and prowling and stealing for a living. Then one night while burgling a house, she witnessed a wizard teaching his apprentice a spell—the creation of a magic dagger. Tabaea decided to try the magic for herself. But even though she could feel the power rising around her as she went through the steps of the ritual, something had clearly gone wrong. The apprentice's dagger had glowed; it had resisted attempts to pick it up; and there had been a blinding flash at the end of the ceremony. But Tabaea's dagger didn't do any of those things. And it wouldn't free her from bonds, or heal her wounds—it didn't seem to be magical at all. It just turned black. Then, by chance, Tabaea discovered that her dagger indeed had its own kind of unusal magic—a dark, powerful magic that promised invincibility to its bearer. But magic can be dangerous even in the hands of an expert—and for Tabaea, magic and power could spell disaster . . .

Warlockry has been rare in Ethshar . . . until The Night of Madness, when a mysterious object falls from the heavens, sending out a wave of magic in the form of a dream. All who have the dream awaken in panic. But some of them also awaken to the power or Warlockry. Throughout the land these newly made warlocks wreak havoc; looting and rioting, petty personal revenge, and uncontrollable madness run rampant. Worse, people are hearing a mysterious, irresistible call from which they never return. Into this chaos steps the power-hungry Lord Faran, who seeks to use his new warlock powers to overthrow the government and take possession of the throne. Who will dare to oppose him?

When Magic Goes Awry . . . What is an aspiring apprentice wizard to do when she finds her mentor and master frozen in his tracks by mysterious magics? Kilisha of Eastgate, a promising young student of wizardry in the city of Ethshar of the Rocks, still has much to learn before she can assume the robes of a journeyman enchanter. But when her teacher, the venerable Ithanalin the Wise, is overcome by a peculiar spell that scatters his soul amongst a collection of runaway household furnishings, it is up to Kilisha to find the cause and restore him to his former self. Adventure and mayhem abound.

Every wizard in Ethshar knew that if you needed something special, something difficult to find, that Gresh the Supplier was the man to see. He was expensive, but always delivered. So when the Wizards' Guild finally got fed up with the little green nuisances that called themselves "spriggans," the Guild hired Gresh to fetch them the magic mirror that created the troublesome imps. The wizards thought finding it looked impossible. Gresh thought his methods would do the job. But no one had asked the spriggans what they thought!

Once, not so long ago, A warlock named Vond built an empire in the southern part of the Small Kingdoms. Vond is gone, but his empire survives under the rule of a seven-person Imperial Council and a young regent named Sterren. The Empire of Vond was hardly trouble-free after Vond's departure. Its neighbors are understandably wary of further expansion, there are questions about how Vond's magic became so potent, and so on. Most of the World, though, doesn't care—Vond is off there in the southeastern corner of the World, far away from anywhere important. But one day a dockworker named Emmis watches a Vondish ship arrive in Ethshar of the Spices and finds himself hired as native guide and aide to someone who claims to be Vond's ambassador plenipotentiary to the overlords of the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars. But who is the Vondish ambassador, really, and what is his true business in Ethshar? And who has followed him to the city?

The Calling. Sooner or later, it claimed every powerful warlock . . . a growing magical compulsion to go north to the mysterious land of Aldagmor that nothing could stop. None ever returned. Hanner the Warlock knew his days were numbered. The Calling pulled at him ceaselessly now, and his ability to resist had begun to crumble. So he determined to find a place where the Calling couldn’t reach him . . . another world, located through a magic tapestry. Every warlock knew that the farther he was from Aldagmor, the weaker the Calling was—and the weaker his magic was, as well, but that was only a secondary consideration. That weakening had given Hanner the idea to find, or make, a place so distant from Aldagmor that the Call couldn’t reach it at all. Unfortunately, the Call took him anyway. And that’s where his story really gets interesting. Because the Calling wasn’t what everyone believed. And when the warlocks who had been Called over the decades suddenly woke up again beside the object doing the calling—and found themselves without their powers—their world may never be the same!

Ethshar? Some readers already recognize the name, but if you aren’t one of them, perhaps a brief explanation is in order. “Ethshar” is the invented world that has been the setting for almost a dozen novels from the pen of Lawrence Watt-Evans. Its inhabitants don’t call it that; they call it “the World.” For readers, though, that’s not specific enough. The dominant nation on the World is the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars, while the largest, richest city, where most of the stories are set, is Ethshar of the Spices, so “Ethshar” is close enough. The name itself comes from words meaning “safe harbor.” You don’t need to have read any of the novels to enjoy the stories herein; each one should stand alone. And if you've read the novels, you will enjoy this return to the world of Ethshar with 11 stories... This is the first time they have all been collected in one book!

The great wizard Nabal's death offers many opportunities, both for those who knew him and those who did not. For young conmen Ezak and Kel, it means a chance to loot the wizard's estate... if they can win the confidence of Nabal's widow, Dorna. But Dorna has plans of her own. She means to leave the tiny village for a better life in the city. And all of Nabal's wizardly artifacts and talismans will pay for that new life—if she can only get them there intact!

Young Ishta found it in the forest, buried beneath dead leaves: a rounded, flattened stone as black as onyx. One side held a golden oval that glowed with a unnatural light. Of course, it had to be magic. But what did farmers know of magic? It could be dangerous, or it could be some harmless toy. They had to find out. Since Ishta was too young to bring her discovery to the Baron of Varag’s stronghold, her older brother, Garander, went instead. Once there, Azlia, a beautiful wizard, recognized the stone immediately as Northern sorcery. She had to call Sammel, the local sorcerer, to find out its nature . . . a relic of the last great war. When the Baron takes the stone for himself, that should have ended things. But it was just the beginning for Garander. Because that magical stone wasn’t the only relic left in the woods...

No good deed goes unpunished! When Morvash of the Shadows, a journeyman wizard, discovers some of the statues in his uncle’s house are real people turned to stone, he sets out to do the right thing. But turning them back is a bigger challenge than he anticipated.... Darissa the Witch’s Apprentice wants to help a prince of Melitha defend their homeland against an invasion. But there’s more to both of them than meets the eye.... Hakin of the Hundred-Foot Field dares to speak to a demon—and abruptly finds himself employed to find the demon's employer, a missing magician...and learns the name of his father.... Before long, these reluctant heroes find their separate fates entwined. For they are the only ones standing in the way of a mad wizard’s scheme that could unleash the greatest monster Ethshar has ever seen!