Echoes

By Michelle West

Kallandras is a Master Bard, often sent by the Bardmaster into war zones - because he always survives. Set during the trek through the Sea of Sorrows, this is the story of Kallandras’ youth, in the labyrinths of the Brotherhood of Assassins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosdan Press
• Release date: Jun 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781927094013

Book preview

ECHOES

by Michelle West

Rosdan Press, 2011

Toronto, Ontario

Canada

SMASHWORDS EDITION: 978-1-927094-01-3

Copyright 2011 by Michelle Sagara

All rights reserved

Cover design by Anneli West.

Echoes Copyright 2001 by Michelle Sagara, first appeared in Assassin Fantastic ed. Martin H. Greenberg and Alexander Potter.

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Novels by Michelle West

The Sacred Hunt

Hunter's Oath

Hunter's Death

The Sun Sword

The Broken Crown

The Uncrowned King

The Shining Court

The Sea of Sorrows

The Riven Shield

The Sun Sword

The House War

The Hidden City

City of Night

House Name

Skirmish*

War*

*Forthcoming in 2012 and 2013

Table of Contents

Introduction

Echoes

Other Stories by the Author

Introduction

Kallandras has appeared in every novel I’ve written in the Sun Sword or the Sacred Hunt; he is heading his way to Averalaan as I type this, in the final volume of The House War. He’s one of the earliest of my characters, and his role in any of these books has always of necessity been smaller than I would like. His essential situation is tragic; he is driven by love that will always be scorned, and by a desire to protect those who will not only never thank him, but never forgive him making the attempt.

Music is his forte; he’s a Master Bard of Senniel College. In the universe of Essalieyan, this title comes with responsibilities to the Bardmaster, the Bardic College in which he trained, the Kings and the Empire. But if this defines his public face, it is not the driving force behind his life, and this story speaks of that earlier life as an assassin.

Echoes takes place during the novel Sea of Sorrows; it’s a small interlude during the nights of desert travel.

When Alexander Potter was putting together a collection for DAW Books—Assassin Fantastic—he didn’t approach me immediately to ask for a story about my sole assassin; Tanya Huff did. She phoned and said, I’ve got a story about Bannon and Vree that I want to write, and I figure I can sell it for an anthology about assassins. I want you to write a Kallandras story as well.

I asked her who was going to edit the anthology, and she answered, Alex. So I said the only sensible thing I could: Sure.

This is that story.

Echoes

WHAT DOES mercy mean?

Kallandras of Senniel College, the most famous bard that the most famous of bardic colleges had yet produced, stirred beneath the growing chill of desert sky. The Sea of Sorrows lay before him, sand dunes rippling out in endless ridges that seemed as solid as stone from a distance. But he knew that the wind would reclaim them, as they did all else in the South.

Senniel College, and the life he had led there, was very far away, ensconced in the heart of the Imperial Capital. The only physical evidence of his time there lay in her case, her strings still. He could not hear music at all, although he listened for it.

Music