SWORD AND SORCERESS XVI, page 1
SWORD AND SORCERESS XVI
EDITED BY
Marion Zimmer Bradley
DAW BOOKS, INC.
DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, FOUNDER
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
ELIZABETH R. WOLLHEIM
SHEILA E. GILBERT
PUBLISHERS
Copyright © 1999 by Marion Zimmer Bradley
All Rights Reserved.
Cover art by Michael Whelan
DAW Book Collectors No. 1124.
DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."
First Printing, June 1999 23456789 10
DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED 'U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES —MARCA REGISTRADA HECHO EN U.S.A.
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Introduction ©1999 by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The Kappa's Gift ©1999 by Fujiko.
The Changeless Room ©1999 by Charlotte Carlson.
Isabelle and the Siren ©1999 by Mary Catelli.
Dragon's Tear ©1999 by Sonya Fedotowsky.
A Sister's Blood ©1999 by Patricia B. Cirone.
Changed ©1999 by Lisa Deason."
The Power to Change the Shape of the Land ©1999 by Dayle A. Dermatis.
The Frog Prince ©1999 by Linda J. Dunn.
Honey from the Rock ©1999 by Dorothy J. Heydt.
The Will of the Wind ©1999 by Christina Krueger.
Moonlight on Water ©1999 by Carol E. Leever.
Nine Springs ©1999 by Kathleen M. Massie-Ferch.
Mistweaver ©1999 by Terry McGarry.
Waking the Stone Maiden ©1999 by Cynthia McQuillin.
City of No-Sleep ©1999 by Vera Nazarian.
Daughter of the Bear ©1999 by Diana Paxson.
The Wishing Stones ©1999 by Lisa S. Silverthorne.
A Fool's Game ©1999 by Selina Rosen.
The Anvil of Her Pride ©1999 by Lawrence Schimel.
The Dancing Men of Ballyben ©1999 by Laura J. Underwood.
Salt and Sorcery ©1999 by Elisabeth Waters and Michael Spence.
Weaving Spells ©1999 by Lawrence Watt Evans.
Enaree, an Azkhantian Tale ©1999 by Deborah Wheeler.
The Day They Ran Out of Princesses ©1999 by Gail Sosinsky Wickman.
Taking Flight ©1999 by Susan Wolven.
The Vision That Appeared ©1999 by Katherine L. Rogers.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
THE KAPPA'S GIFT
by Fujiko
THE CHANGELESS ROOM
by Charlotte Carlson
ISABELLE AND THE SIREN
by Mary Catelli
DRAGON'S TEAR
by Sonya Fedotowsky
A SISTER'S BLOOD
by Patricia B. Cirone
CHANGED
by Lisa Deason
THE POWER TO CHANGE THE
SHAPE OF THE LAND
by Dayle A. Dermatis
THE FROG PRINCE
by Linda J. Dunn
HONEY FROM THE ROCK
by Dorothy J. Heydt
THE WILL OF THE WIND
by Christina Krueger
MOONLIGHT ON WATER
by Carol E. Leever
NINE SPRINGS
by Kathleen M. Massie-Ferch
MISTWEAVER
by Terry McGarry
WAKING THE STONE MAIDEN
by Cynthia McQuillin
CITY OF NO-SLEEP
by Vera Nazarian
DAUGHTER OF THE BEAR
by Diana Paxson
THE WISHING STONES
by Lisa S. Silverthorne
A FOOL'S GAME
by Selina Rosen
THE ANVIL OF HER PRIDE
by Lawrence Schimel
THE DANCING MEN OF BALLYBEN
by Laura J. Underwood
SALT & SORCERY
by Elisabeth Waters and Michael Spence
WEAVING SPELLS
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
ENAREE, AN AZKHANTIAN TALE
by Deborah Wheeler
THE DAY THEY RAN OUT OF PRINCESSES
by Gail Sosinsky Wickman
TAKING FLIGHT
by Susan Wolven
THE VISION THAT APPEARED
by Katherine L. Rogers
INTRODUCTION
It's hard to believe I've been doing these volumes for as long as I have. Every year I realize again how lucky I am to be able to do this series, to discover new writers, and to read new stories by my old friends, many of whom were new writers when I first encountered them. I remember looking at the new books shelf in a local science-fiction bookstore one day about eight years ago, and thinking that the names on the new releases looked a lot like the table of contents of a volume of Sword and Sorceress. By now I have writers whose first stories I bought bringing new writers into the field, following our tradition of "paying forward"—since we can't pay back the writers and editors who helped us when we were young and just starting out.
Both the world we live in and the stories I get have changed over the years. The first few years, I got so many stories about women who knew that they could do traditional "men's work" and were busy proving it to men. Now that a good part of our world has figured out the truth of that (or at least passed laws to that effect), I don't get many of those stories anymore.
It's like the basic rule of science fiction: just grant your gimmicks, and get on with your story. (This is why science fiction has FTL travel and transporters, and fantasy has teleportation spells. They save travel time, so you can get right to the story.) Also, after the second year, I put my foot down and said I refused to buy any more stories about women proving they could
be camel herders, or whatever it was the men said they couldn't be.
But now that so many women hold down "men's jobs" in addition to having families and homes to take care of—all too frequently without any help from the man who promised to be there and help, I'm starting to see another sort of story. A woman may be able to do anything, but that doesn't mean that she can do everything. And I sometimes suspect that too many of us are trying to do just that.
This year I noticed that quite a few of the stories I got were about women coping with things they weren't at all sure they could do. We've gone from needing to prove our abilities to men to having to prove them to ourselves. So now we have stories about women persevering against all odds, keeping on with their lives no matter what the world throws at them, coping with disaster, and surviving. Perhaps that's the motto for the end of the millennium: just keep going. When you fall, pick yourself up and try again.
That certainly applies to my writers. A very few sell to me on their first try, but most of them have years of rejection slips before their first sale. The ones who succeed are the ones who work hard and keep trying.
For anyone who wants to submit a manuscript for Sword and Sorceress, first send a #10 SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) to Sword and Sorceress, P.O. Box 72, Berkeley CA 94701-0072. The guidelines for my magazine (Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine) are available from P.O. Box 249, Berkeley CA 94701-0249, or on my Web site, www.mzbfm.com. The Web site also has useful information for beginning, writers, including the articles I used as handouts when I taught a writer's workshop some years ago. The magazine is an easier market; I get to do four of them a year, instead of just one, and the story requirements, not being limited to sword and sorcery with female protagonists, are less rigid. The magazine gives me a chance to play
with additional types of stories, including contemporary settings, which I don't use for Sword and Sorceress. But I love both the anthology and the magazine, and I wouldn't give either of them up for anything.
THE KAPPA'S GIFT
by Fujiko
Fujiko was born in Japan, near Mount Fuji; she was, of course, named after the mountain. At the not very observant age of six months, she and her family moved to Chile, where she spent "an almost embarrassingly idyllic childhood" until 1968, when her family moved to Vancouver, Canada. She spent several years in the public schools—which I know from experience can be a far from idyllic surrounding—and then struggled through four years of university to earn a Bachelor of Science degree which she has never used in her work, but which she says has enhanced her ability to understand and enjoy her surroundings.
She met her future husband, Tero, when she was fourteen, and they are now doing their best to make decent human beings of their son, Brian, fourteen, and daughter, Selene, eleven. (It doesn't matter much what you do, when they're older they'll think you did everything wrong; that's just human experience.)
She also has, as is par for most writers, an assortment of animals: an English cocker spaniel named Kelsie; three cats, Simba, Nikki, and Tasha; three guinea pigs; a hamster; and assorted fish and transient frogs. Aw, shucks! You mean you didn't have the imagination to name the fish and frogs? i was really looking forward to knowing what names you'd give to all of them—particularly the transient ones.
Well, for a story as imaginative and not overdone as this, I guess we'll just have to forgive you. It's nice to get some mythology t
Aki paused to listen to the sounds of the night creatures awakening around her in the growing darkness. The familiar noises made her smile, but tonight there was no time to sit and enjoy them. She still faced a long walk back to the farmhouse and wished she hadn't dawdled in the fields. The young cucumbers filling the basket on her back felt heavier with every step. Sighing, Aki adjusted the straps of the basket on her shoulders and continued to trudge along the river path.
A loud splash at the water's edge made Aki jump. With the back of her neck tingling in alarm, she scanned the reeds along the riverbank. She could detect no movement or anything out of the ordinary; still, her steps quickened of their own accord.
Suddenly, a shadow unraveled itself from the tall water reeds and stepped onto the path in front of her. She cringed back with a sharp cry, and then laughed out loud in relief when she saw that the shadow was no bigger than she was. It was only a young boy.
"You nearly scared me to death!" Aki said to him. She started forward with a smile, and froze. What stood in front of her was not a boy. Horror crawled along her spine as her eyes took in details of the creature that confronted her. At first glance it did look like a boy, but on its back it bore a shell like a turtle. The top of its head had a bowllike depression filled with water and was rimmed with long, black hair that hung in wet spikes. The amphibian face had cunning, intelligent eyes that watched her with great interest.
"Kappa!" Aki gasped. She had always thought kappas were a myth, a creepy story to tell children at bedtime. Now she faced one in the flesh, and she forced her terrified mind to remember the many stories she had heard. They were magical—but how? Water in the bowl at the top of their heads held their power and magic; without it they were very weak. They were blamed for many children's drownings. Cucumbers were a drug to them, causing a feeling of euphoria. They stole farm animals and
ate them. But did they attack people? Aki couldn't remember.
Barely able to control her shaking knees, Aki swallowed hard and said, "I have no quarrel with you. Let me pass, and I will not harm you." She marveled at her own gall. It was clearly obvious to both her and the kappa that if there were any harm to be done, she wouldn't be the one doing it.
The kappa stood on thin, bowed legs and stared at her, its gray-green skin shining with a slimy glint. Suddenly, it let out a long hiss and raised its head, sniffing the air with disgusting, wet noises. Aki watched, paralyzed with fear, unable to react when it closed the space between them and grabbed the basket on her back. She fell hard on her knees and struggled to regain her feet as the creature hauled the basket toward the river, dragging her behind. Fearing that she would die if they reached the water, she redoubled her efforts. She twisted and rolled, scattering the cucumbers from the basket.
The kappa stopped and eyed the vegetables strewn on the dirt. It could not ignore a cucumber any more than a starving dog could ignore a piece of bloody meat. It bent down to reach for one, and Aki, seeing her chance to escape, kicked with all her might. Her foot caught the kappa on the side of the face and sent it rolling to the ground. It screamed in rage as it felt the water spilling from the bowl on the top of its head. Aki tried to get away from the nightmarish creature but slipped in the mud. Feeling its strength draining, the kappa frantically flailed its arms, clawing at Aki's kimono and slashing her thigh. She screamed in pain and terror and fell once more to the ground. The kappa lunged at the basket again and yanked. Aki rolled backward, crushing the kappa underneath her. Without its extraordinary strength the creature was unable to hold Aki down, and she managed to stand up. She tried to run, but she could still feel the kappa holding on to the basket. Wild with desperation she turned her head, and from the corner of her eye she saw the handle of the small hatchet, her
natta, sticking up above the basket's rim. Whipping her arm back, she jerked the natta free and swung it in a wide arc. The sharp blade caught the kappa's thin arm above the elbow and sliced through it.
With an agonizing scream the kappa fell to the ground holding the stub of its arm in a webbed hand. Aki stood stunned as the creature convulsed and screeched in the mud. She closed her eyes to shut out the horrifying image, and then she turned and ran.
Aki ran blindly, with the hellish screeching echoing in her head. She ran until her lungs were bursting and she could no longer feel her legs. When she thought she could not go another step, she saw the farmhouse lights ahead and forced her legs to keep moving. Finally, she stumbled through the back door, and collapsed on the floor.
"Where have you been all this time?" yelled her Aunt Noriko, stomping toward her. "What the . . . look at you! You've ruined your clothes! And the basket, too!" she said, pulling the basket off Aki's limp body.
The inner door of the kitchen slid open, and her cousin Goro stood framed in the doorway. He watched silently as Aki slowly picked herself up from the floor. His eyes narrowed when he saw the rips in her kimono, and the blood on her exposed thigh.
"A kappa—" said Aki trying to catch her breath. "I— I was attacked by a kappa—by the river."
Goro walked up to Aki and slapped her hard across the face. The unexpected blow sent her sprawling back to the floor.
"Liar!" he yelled. His face was red and his speech slurred. He had obviously been drinking.
"No! A horrible monster attacked me! A kappa!" she insisted.
Goro slapped her again. Pain seared her face, but she gritted her teeth and glared at him. Goro, breathing hard through his nose, would have hit her again but was stopped by Aunt Noriko's scream of horror.
"What is that?" said the old woman pointing at the basket.
Goro picked up the basket by its rim and held it high. The kappa's arm swung from the bottom, its curved claws caught in one of the straps.
"It's the kappa's arm," said Aki. "I told you. It attacked me. I cut off its arm and ran home."
Goro studied the grotesque arm for a long time, and then he looked at Aki and started to laugh. He lifted and pulled at the arm, but it held fast. Swearing, he stepped on the basket and yanked it free. Holding the arm up like a trophy he went back to his room, Aunt Noriko following on his heels. Aki slumped against the wall as they disappeared through the door. Goro's voice reached her from the other room.
"I'll take the kappa's arm to the castle and present it to Lord Minagawa. He'll be so pleased he'll reward me with gold," he said and slurped noisily from a jug of sake.
