Sword and Sorceress XXVII by Unknown Page B

Mika came into existence. Nobody ever said that all female mages
or warriors must be human.
    Elisabeth
continues to juggle working on her novel, anthology editing, and writing short
stories. She is currently working on a story for Mercedes Lackey’s anthology ELEMENTAL
MAGIC: All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters (the anthology is scheduled for
December, but the story is due in three weeks) as well as her next Valdemar
animal story “A Wake of Vultures.” In her mundane life she spent the past tax
season volunteering with the AARP Tax Aide Program, which was an educational
experience and provided her with several blog entries.
    Michael
Spence made his audiobook debut this year with his narration of the novel HOUSE
OF ZEOR by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, who called his reading “the best I’ve ever
found in an audiobook.” It’s available at Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. He is now
working on the audiobook versions of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s books THE BRASS
DRAGON and THE SWORD OF ALDONES. Michael and Ramona have relocated to Minnesota
together with Orson, a bichon-cocker mix with a tendency to rush to the front
window and bark furiously—at nothing. Or so it would seem.....
     
    ****
     
    The makt came to life—if one could call
it that—backstage in the University of Albion’s theater department’s main
auditorium, behind one of the eight props cabinets, and promptly began
searching. It had little time in this state; it had to find something quickly
to give it structure, or dissipate.
    Since a makt was a variety of spell,
rather than a lifeform in its own right, one would not expect it to possess all
of the three classical elements of personality; it did the will of the mage who
cast it, as an extension of that same will, without the distraction of
accompanying passion or intellect. The mage who placed this one, however, had
not had the luxury of full reconnaissance, and so had to provide for some
improvisation. It therefore possessed a rudimentary intellect—again, an
extension of the mage’s: to scan; to observe; to choose.
    And then the will would have free
rein... to seek; to find.
    To possess .
    #
    Melisande was in the bedroom, unpacking
from her trip to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Anne, when her husband
came home.
    “Melisande?” He seemed surprised to see
her. “I thought you weren’t due back until the fifteenth.”
    “Stephen,” she said going into his arms
for a hug, “today is the fifteenth.”
    “Oh.”
    “I’m glad to see you, too,” she said
pointedly.
    He started. “Of course I’m glad to see
you, it’s just that—” he broke off abruptly, staring at the one thing that hadn’t
fit in her luggage. “What’s that?”
    “It’s a dog, dear. Her name is Mika.
What are you working on that’s made you so absent-minded?”
    The dog—a beautiful black-and-white
border collie—was instantly consigned to the ‘Melisande is dealing with it’
category, as Stephen waxed enthusiastic about his work. “Edward and I are doing
a seminar for an exchange group from the Colonies. It’s incredible; their magic
system is so different from ours—subtly different, but the subtleties are
fascinating. There’s even one girl who comes from beyond the Colonies, and we’re
still trying to puzzle out just what she does.”
    Albion’s and Iberia’s colonies,
Melisande knew, stretched almost halfway across North America. “You mean,
beyond the Mississippi? I didn’t know they had settlements there, let alone
universities.”
    Stephen shook his head in bewilderment. “Now
that you mention it, I haven’t heard of any.” Then he seemed to forget the
question entirely. “Why do we have a dog? I thought you were at the convent to
learn how to handle our daughter.” He placed a possessive hand on Melisande’s
growing belly. “I still can’t believe she’s going to be a Guardian from birth .”
    “She will be, but the Paten will be kept
safely at the Motherhouse until she’s older and