Magic's Pawn

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Magic's Pawn is a 1992 fantasy novel by Mercedes Lackey. The first in the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy it centers around a powerful Herald-Mage named Vanyel Ashkevron, in the kingdom of Valdemar. Heralds, in the world of Valdemar, are people with extrasensory or psychic abilities; Mages are those who can do magic. Both sets of abilities are clearly and distinctly defined in the Valdemar universe. The other two books in the series are Magic's Promise and Magic's Price.

[edit] Plot summary

Vanyel Ashkevron, a young boy of sixteen, is his father's Heir and the least popular boy at his estate. Withen, his father, forces him to train with heavy armor and weapons that are much more suited to a soldier, when Vanyel would much rather focus on music. He dreams of becoming a Bard, and spends great amounts of time practicing. His only other sources of self-esteem are his rough but warmhearted sister Lissa, who tries to protect him, and his physical attractiveness, which he cultivates with vanity in elegant attire and manner; he always tries to look his best, but this is misinterpreted by others as conceit. In one of his weapons classes, he attempts to use moves and strategies suited to his size, only to be told that this is "cheating". His father never hears the real story and dismisses Vanyel as a coward. The armsmaster, Jervis, continues to bully him and eventually breaks his arm, impairing his ability to play his lute (he never quite gets full mobility back). Vanyel is consumed with justified anger and self-pity, attempting to cope by imagining himself frozen in ice, based on a soothing dream he has had. Disgusted with his son's attitude, Withen decides to send Vanyel to be trained by his sister in the capital of Valdemar, Haven.

When Vanyel first arrives at the palace he is initially apprehensive about living with his Aunt Savil. She does not have a good reputation within his family, and the last time he had seen him she had been brusque with him. She had evaluated him for magic and psychic gifts, seen that he had "potential but nothing open," and dismissed him as not worth thinking about. However, Savil is not cruel, but tries to see whether he is the arrogant brat Withen told her of, or somebody who had been hurting inside for a very long time. He is set many classes at the Collegium, and although it is against his father's wishes, some are set with the Bardic Trainees. He is also taught to use light armor and weapons much more suitable for his size and speed. Although Vanyel dreamt of becoming a Bard, he does not have the Bardic Gift, a psychic ability which allows a musician or poet to manipulate the emotions of his listeners. This was necessary for him to be accepted into the Bardic Collegium. Vanyel's dreams are shattered and he drifts into depression.

Despite his misfortunes, Vanyel begins to have a romantic interest in Tylendel, one of Savil's protegés. Van learns that Tylendel is shay'a'chern, or homosexual. Suspecting that he is also shay'a'chern, but too frightened to admit it, Vanyel shuns Tylendel and continues to imagine himself encased in ice, so that there will be no chance of Tylendel ever being able to hurt him.

Finally, the ice is broken when Vanyel has a terrible nightmare, and Tylendel comes to offer comfort. They become lovers and lifebonded, although they do not realize that they are lifebonded until much later. Tylendel introduces Vanyel to Gala, his Companion, highly intelligent magical creatures who look like (but are not) horses. Each Herald has such a Companion, a loving friend who guides, supports, and sometimes augments his abilities; the relationship between the two is very similar to the Pernese dragons' with their riders. Vanyel and Tylendel do not disclose their relationship to anyone other than Gala, because Van's father despises homosexuals and would doubtless force Vanyel to return home if he was aware of what he is doing at Haven. Vanyel also learns that it is not necessary to have the Bardic Gift to study music at Haven and become an accomplished musician. He is told that the Gift can distract from the actual music, and that Haven's music school would have been happy to accept him if Withen had not expressly forbidden it.

Sometime later, 'Lendel's twin, Staven (the heir to Tylendel's House), is killed by Wester Leshara, a member of a rival House. Because Tylendel and Staven had a kind of empathic link, not unlike a lifebond, Tylendel experiences psychic backlash from his brother's murder. He goes into a fit, loses control of his powers and unconsciously destroys the grove that he and Van were sitting in.

Mad with rage and grief, he becomes obsessed with revenge, and Van offers to help in any way he can. The two realize they are lifebonded, and Tylendel plans to use Van's unopened Mage Potential to build a dimensional Gate, to travel to Leshara territory. Tylendel then unleashes wyrsa (pony-sized creatures that resemble a cross between a greyhound and a snake) on the Leshara to destroy them. Gala appears through the gate after the first death and renounces 'Lendel as her Chosen, breaking their psychic bond. Then, she suicides to buy enough time for other Heralds to come through the gate and deal with the wyrsa before any more deaths can occur. Tylendel's already unstable mind completely collapses at Gala's death.

After Gala's suicide, Heralds Savil, Lancir, and Jaysen show up. They defeat the wyrsa and immediately take 'Lendel and Vanyel back to the Palace. They see to Vanyel immediately as he was still tied to the Gate, which was steadily leeching energy from him, and his energy levels had fallen so that he was nearly unconscious. When the Heralds dismantle the Gate, the energy used to build it, which was taken from Vanyel, backlashes into him. He goes into convulsions; all the "channels" of psychic and magical ability in his brain are blasted open. While the Heralds' attention is on Vanyel, Tylendel, insane with grief over the loss of his Companion and twin, throws himself from the top of the Haven bell-tower.

Tylendel's suicide and his own psychic injuries send Vanyel into a mental and physical breakdown. Healer Andrel works to save him, but as his skills are more those of a medical doctor/herbalist, he cannot do anything about the psychic damage. The only reason that Vanyel did not die after losing his lifebonded partner was because he was Chosen by another Companion, Yfandes, immediately after 'Lendel's death. Yfandes is an older Companion who has never picked a Herald. She communicates with Vanyel mentally and reassures him of her love and friendship.

Unfortunately, Tylendel and Vanyel's decision to conceal their relationship has led to serious misunderstanding. Most people know the two were together, but assumed that Vanyel was merely a "user", who had seduced and was toying with the affections of the younger Tylendel. Vanyel, who now has the gift of Mindspeech (telepathy), overhears the thoughts of another Herald, Jaysen, a homophobe who believes Vanyel caused Tylendel's death and would much rather Vanyel had died instead of Tylendel. Consumed with guilt, Vanyel now believes the only way he can atone for his bondmate's death is to give up his own life. Stealing away to Tylendel's side, where he is lying in state before his burial, Vanyel calmly slits his wrists. He has concealed his intentions from Yfandes until the last minute, but she manages to call for help in time and Van is saved. Savil decides to take Van to the Tayledras hoping that they can heal him.

Withen hears part of the story and comes to Haven to berate Savil for making his son into a "perverted catamite". Savil storms back at Withen for being more concerned about his own reputation than about his child, and reminds him that Vanyel now belongs to the Heralds. Withen sees Vanyel with Yfandes, and is confronted with the truth. Vanyel is barely conscious, but lashes out psychically at his father with both venomous sarcasm and telekinesis ("How does it feel to be knocked down and stepped on by something you can't reason with and can't fight?")

Delivered to the Tayledras -- human beings with highly developed magic and psychic powers, whose entire lifestyle is infused with magic [1] -- at their settlement, K'Treva Vale, Vanyel comes under the care of Healer-Adept Moondance, who is able to heal Vanyel mentally. Moondance's lifebonded mate, Starwind, teaches Vanyel how to control his magic and psychic abilities. They also convince him that his homosexuality is normal, reminding him that it occurs in nature, among wild animals. Vanyel is glad to hear this, but resists the magical and psychic instruction. He wants no part of that which killed Tylendel. To make matters worse, Starwind presents him with an exercise in which he's supposed to defend himself again illusory wyrsa-- the very sight of these creatures angers and terrifies him into a meltdown.

A series of suspicious attacks in the area around the Vale are found to be caused by a nest of "cold drakes", a particular kind of dragon. Moondance, Starwind, and Savil go off to deal with them, leaving Vanyel by himself in the Vale. One of Vanyel's more sporadic Gifts, Foresight (premonition), manifests itself in a dream-vision of his own death. Muzzy and confused by the dream combined with all the traumatic recent events, Vanyel begins to feel that Savil and the other Heralds, and the Tayledras, simply want something from him, that they didn't care about him personally but wished only to take advantage of these powers he now has, which he doesn't even want.

Running away deep into the forest, he cries and prays to Tylendel. At last he falls asleep, but on waking realizes that Savil and the others actually do care about him personally; they've shown it in various ways. Thinking that he has been selfish, and that Tylendel would not want him acting that way, he plans to return to the Vale, but hears a scream of panic. Someone is in trouble. Curious and alarmed, he rushes to the scene. The scream turns out to have come from a woman who is about to be eaten by a cold drake. Vanyel manages to use his Mage-gift to kill the cold drake, but not before it kills an old man and the woman's husband. The cold drake turns out to be the queen of the nest. Soon thereafter, the three Adepts show up at the farm, having followed the dragon's trail. After this incident, Vanyel understands why a Herald must always risk his own life, even for people he barely knows. Although he blames himself for not being able to rescue the men because he was temporarily frozen by his fascination with the queen dragon, the Adepts tell him that he is not a coward, since he ran toward the danger, not away from it.

The Adepts realize that the cold drakes were a distaction, having discovered another small village which has been taken over by blood-mage Krebain. Blood mages use the pain and suffering of others to enhance their own abilities. Taking Yfandes, the adepts leave Vanyel in the village where they found him, so they can go track down the mage withought having to be slowed down by his beginner's lack of expertise. Vanyel is supposed to organize the villagers into a defense force, but has no luck or skill at this, and suspects it was merely a ruse to keep him in a safe place while making him believe he was helping.

Krebain shows up and Vanyel is forced to face him. Impressed with Vanyel's startling beauty, Krebain states he had first intended to kill Vanyel, but decides to keep him, using him for sexual favors as well as for a power source. Krebain's spell briefly ensnares Vanyel, but he breaks out of it and decides to kill Krebain by opening himself up fully to a nearby "node" -- a kind of stream of energy in the earth, accessible by mages to augment their powers. Use of a node can be life-threatening, but Vanyel believes it's for the best and that he'll be with Tylendel in the afterlife. He touches Krebain and lets the node's energy arc through him.

Moments later, Vanyel wakes up, astonished to find that he's still alive. Moondance had become aware of what he was up to and raced to his side to save him. The story ends with Vanyel's graduation to full Herald-Mage status, amid the affection and approval of his teachers and peers.

[edit] Characters in "Magic's Pawn"

• Vanyel: The protagonist, who is a young boy of 16. He is shay'a'chern ("shaych") or homosexual. His mage powers are awakened late in the book, following the death of his lifebonded, Tylendel.
• Tylendel: Vanyel's lifebonded partner and also shay'a'chern. He is a Herald-Mage Trainee, and one of Savil's proteges.
• Savil: Vanyel's Aunt. She is one of the strongest Herald-Mages. She trains young Herald-Mage Trainees.
• Gala: Tylendel's Companion.
• Yfandes: Vanyel's Companion. She was the only adult Companion not to have Chosen before Vanyel's powers were awakened.
• Kellan: Savil's Companion.
• Mardic: Another of Savil's proteges. His lifebonded partner is Donni.
• Donni: The last of Savil's proteges. She is lifebonded to Mardic.
• Jaysen: A Herald, who initially dislikes Vanyel because he is proud, vain, and most of all shay'a'chern -- he does not realize Vanyel and Tylendel really loved each other.
• Andrel: A Healer (herbalist-physician), who saves Vanyel's life.
• Moondance: Tayeldras Healer-Adept. He is life-bonded to Starwind. He heals and trains Vanyel.
• Starwind: Tayeldras Adept. He is life-bonded to Moondance. He trains Vanyel along with Moondance.
• Withen: Vanyel's father.
• Lady Treesa: Vanyel's mother.
• Lissa: Vanyel's sister, a tough, outspoken soldier who loves Vanyel and tries to protect him.
• Jervis: The armsmaster that bullied Vanyel and broke his arm while he was living at his Father's Hold.