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  “For classic fantasy, there is no better author…a treasure trove.”

  —Jennifer Roberson, author of The Wild Road

  “McKiernan’s narratives have heart and fire and drive.”

  —Katharine Kerr, author of Apocalypse to Go

  PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS

  OF DENNIS L. McKIERNAN

  The Dragonstone

  “Evocative and compelling.”

  —Jennifer Roberson

  “McKiernan brews magic with an insightful blend of laughter, tears, and high courage.”

  —Janny Wurts, author of Initiate’s Trial

  City of Jade

  “An entertaining adventure tale.”

  —Alternative Worlds

  “[A] good introduction to McKiernan and Mithgar, as well as a solid treat for long-haul fans.”

  —Booklist

  “Aravan is a terrific swashbuckling hero.…The cast makes Mithgar seem a genuine realm where magic and the paranormal are the norm.…Longtime fans will relish sailing the waters of Mithgar aboard the Eroean.”

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  Once Upon a Winter’s Night

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  “Engaging.”

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  “Intelligently told, romantic…and filled with the qualities of the best of the traditional fairy stories.”

  —Chronicle

  Once Upon a Summer Day

  “An interesting twist.…McKiernan’s writing is evocative, and much of the novel’s enjoyment comes from sinking into the story. He paints vivid landscapes and provides lots of good action sequences. The book is valuable as much for the journey as for the destination.”

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  “Romantics, rejoice! McKiernan’s retelling of Sleeping Beauty is the way it should have been done the first time around.…The lines between good and evil are clear, and romance and chivalry and true love are alive and flourishing. McKiernan’s magic invites readers to dive completely into the story, as children do, and conjures the same overwhelming wonder that children experience.”

  —Booklist (starred review)

  “McKiernan embellishes another classic fairy tale in this enjoyably frothy fantasy…keep[s] the reader turning the pages.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “McKiernan takes the tale in some unexpected directions. He also offers an engaging, clever, and resourceful hero in Borel, as well as entertaining sidekicks in Flic, Buzzer, and Chelle herself. Recommended.”

  —SFRevu

  “Steeped in tradition and timelessness and should appeal to fairy-tale lovers of all ages.”

  —Library Journal

  Once Upon an Autumn Eve

  “McKiernan’s latest entry in his four-part fairy-tale cycle goes beyond the reworking of the classic fairy tale The Glass Mountain to depict a world of magic and enchantment.”

  —Library Journal

  “Using a fairy tale as its basis, McKiernan creates all-new heroes and heroines, placing them in a fantastical setting and giving them tribulations that would overwhelm the Brothers Grimm.…Readers who enjoy a well-told tale, full of enchantment and high adventure, will discover wonders and marvels to beguile their time.”

  —SFRevu

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  Once Upon a Spring Morn

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  “Dennis L. McKiernan is a wonderful world builder who reminds readers of the magic that can be found in fairy tales…an enchanting tale that will have readers spellbound.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “An inspired reenvisioning of two classic tales of love and adventure.”

  —Library Journal

  “McKiernan seamlessly sews together two fairy tales and adds unique twists and enhancements in his fourth volume of a world of Faery that ought to have been.”

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  Once Upon a Dreadful Time

  “A magical and beautiful fairytale.”

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  —Library Journal

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  —Library Journal

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  By Dennis L. McKiernan

  Caverns of Socrates

  The Faery Series

  Once Upon a Winter’s Night

  Once Upon a Summer Day

  Once Upon an Autumn Eve

  Once Upon a Spring Morn

  Once Upon a Dreadful Time

  The Mithgar Series

  The Dragonstone

  Voyage of the Fox Rider

  HÈL’S CRUCIBLE

  Book 1: Into the Forge

  Book 2: Into the Fire

  Dragondoom

  The Iron Tower (omnibus edition)

  The Silver Call (omnibus edition)

  Tales of Mithgar (a story collection)

  The Vulgmaster(the graphic novel)

  The Eye of the Hunter

  Silver Wolf, Black Falcon

  City of Jade

  Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar (a story collection)

  VOYAGE OF THE FOX RIDER

  A Novel of Mithgar

  Dennis L. McKiernan

  ROC

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

  New York, New York 10014, USA

  USA/Canada/UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand/India/South Africa/China

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com.

  Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in a Roc hardcover edition.

  First Roc Mass Market Printing, September 1994

  Copyright © Dennis L. McKiernan, 1993

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  ISBN: 978-1-101-62647-4

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirel
y coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  To my sister,

  Donna Lorraine

  in whom whimsey lives

  Acknowledgments

  Appreciation and gratitude to Daniel Kian McKiernan, without whose help the transliterated ancient Greek used as the Black Mage magical language would never have been; to Judith Tarr, without whom the Latin used as the magical language for all other Mages would have been seriously flawed; and to Martha Lee McKiernan for her enduring support, careful reading, patience, and love. Additionally, much appreciation and gratitude goes to all those who encouraged me throughout the writing of Voyage of the Fox Rider—if I wrote down all their names it would fill a page or two…and I would still manage to leave several off the list.

  Contents

  Foreword

  Notes

  Map

  1. Aurora

  2. Night Visitor

  3. Herb Tea and Wild Honey

  4. Shadowland

  5. Kairn

  6. Asea

  7. Passage

  8. Oaths

  9. Straits

  10. Portents

  11. Reflections

  12. Shadows

  13. Ashore

  14. Dreamwalk

  15. Tides

  16. Flux

  17. Streams

  18. Marge

  19. Gelen

  20. Seekers

  21. Dark Choices

  22. Phantasms

  23. Web

  24. Voyage Afar

  25. Children of the Sea

  26. The Great Swirl

  27. Island of Stone

  28. The Lair of the Spider

  29. The Crystal Chamber

  30. In the Garden of Dreams

  31. The Dreamer

  32. Links

  33. Façade

  34. Plumes

  35. Questions

  36. Pursuit

  37. Deliverance

  38. Conjoinment

  39. Grand Wedding

  40. Devastation

  41. Pŷr

  42. Scatterings

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Foreword

  Before the Separation.…Now there is a phrase that has appeared more than once in my Mithgarian sagas.

  Before the Separation.

  It all has to do with another phrase: Once upon a time.

  You see, if the old tales are true, then Once upon a time there lived on this planet peoples of myth and creatures of fable. Alongside Mankind did these fantastic beings exist—pixies and fairies, elves and goblins, chimeras and brownies and sphinx…and whatever else you’d care to name.

  Once upon a time…before the Separation.

  You see, there must have been a Separation if the mythical peoples and mystical creatures are gone, for I am certain that we didn’t kill them all—they are much too wily, much too magical—and so, they must have simply left.

  And if gone, where gone?

  Elsewhere! That’s where. In between! Into the twilight! Into the dawn!

  Why? Why are they gone?

  I have a theory:

  Somewhere along the way, arrogant Mankind claimed all the world as his own to do with as he willed. Man’s appetites were insatiable, and he multiplied and multiplied and multiplied, seemingly without limit, and wherever he went he raped the land and poisoned the soil and air and waters of the world. Slowly, gradually, the legendary folk and fabled creatures were displaced, were pushed back, were shoved into ever smaller enclaves. Always did they hope that Man would mend his ways, see what he was doing, what he had wrought, and reverse the destruction; always did they hope that Man would begin to revere the earth which sustained him. But that was not to be, for Man continued his wanton ways, destroying as he went.

  And so, the day came when the harm reached a point where the peoples of legend could no longer abide what Man had done and was continuing to do. And so they simply gathered up the creatures of fable and left, separated themselves from this destructive beast named Man. They went elsewhere, away from this world, to a place where Man was not.

  This was the Separation.

  You may ask, “Does he truly believe in any of this?”

  My answer is, “Look around. Do you see any creatures of fable, peoples of legend? Or do you instead see the ravage of Mankind?”

  Perhaps someday if Man becomes sane and begins caring for the world, begins reversing the destruction he hath wrought, restores the soil and air and waters, restores the forests and fens and mountains and wilderness to what they once were, and takes fair measure to reduce his own numbers to a tenth or a hundredth or even a thousandth of what they are—let me see, five point five billion divided by a thousand…perhaps it is enough—if he does all these things, then it just may be that the peoples and creatures of legend and fable will return.

  I would hope so, for the world is a sadder place without them.

  Before the Separation.

  Words to make you cry.

  —Dennis L. McKiernan

  September 1992

  Notes

  1. Voyage of the Fox Rider is a tale which takes place before the Separation.

  2. Voyage of the Fox Rider is also a tale which takes place before the Great War of the Ban, hence, the Rûpt are free to roam about in daylight as well as night, although it is told that they prefer to do their deeds in the dark of night rather than in the light of day.

  3. This tale was reconstructed from the fragments of one of the logs of the Elvenship Eroean. I have in several places filled in the gaps with notes from other references, but in the main the tale is true to its source.

  4. As I did in The Eye of the Hunter, I have used transliterated archaic Greek to represent the magical language of the Black Mages. But in the case of all other Mages, I have used Latin.

  5. There are many instances where in the press of the moment, the Pysks, Dwarves, Men, Mages, Elves, and others spoke in their native tongues; yet to avoid burdensome translations, where necessary I have rendered their words in Pellarion, the Common Tongue of Mithgar. However, some words and phrases do not lend themselves to translation, and these I’ve left unchanged or, in special cases, I have enclosed in angle brackets a substitute term which gives the “flavor” of the word (i.e., , , and the like). Additionally, other words may look to be in error, but indeed are correct—e.g., DelfLord is but a single word, though a capital L nestles among its letters. Also note that swivelled, traveller, and several other similar words are written in the Pendwyrian form of Pellarion and are not misspelled.

  6. The Elven language of Sylva is rather archaic and formal. To capture this flavor, I have properly used thee and thou, hast, doth, and the like; however, in the interest of readability, I have tried to do so in a minimal fashion, eliminating some of the more archaic terms.

  7. The speech of the Children of the Sea is riddled with chirps and pops and whistles and clicks. I have used the ! and ¡ to indicate two of these sounds, the ! representing a “tick,” and the ¡ representing a “tock.”

  8. For the curious, the w in Rwn takes on the sound of uu (w is after all a double-u), which in turn can be said to sound like oo (as in spoon). Hence, Rwn is not pronounced Renn, but instead is pronounced Roon, or Rune.

  Fox Rider, Fox Rider,

  Where are you bound?

  After my true love,

  Wherever he’s found

  Deep in my dreams

  The whole world ‘round.

  Dreams are at times

  nought but fanciful images

  in a shifting shadowland.

  CHAPTER 1

  Aurora

  Winter, 1E9572-73

  [Twenty-Two Months Past]

  Farrix stood in the hip-deep snow on the crest of the hill under the winter sky and watched as the curtains of the aurora twisted and rippled, the colors
randomly shifting among the hues of the spectrum, among the crimsons and saffrons and jades and indigos and lavenders.

  Of a sudden—“Hoy, Jinnarin, did you see that?”

  “See what?”

  Farrix turned to the female beside him. “The aurora. It seemed to flash, and a plume, a large plume, streamed outward, southward, there”—Farrix pointed to the eastern horizon—“down low. I’m certain I saw it.”

  Jinnarin shook her head. “I was not looking.”

  “Hmm. I wonder…”

  “You wonder what?”

  “I wonder if those Mages are up to something. I mean, I’ve been watching the aurora all my life, and I never—”

  “Oh, Farrix, you always think the Mages are up to something.”

  “Nevertheless, Jinnarin—”

  “My love,” interjected Jinnarin, “I say let us forget it and go back—”

  “Hoy! There went another one,” exclaimed Farrix. “Streaming south, just like the first.”

  Jinnarin turned and gazed long at the northeastern rim of the nighttime sky…to no avail, for no other plume streamed forth from the writhing drapery of the spectral light—at least, no plume that she could see.

  Farrix, too, stared across the winter-barren branches of the hoary trees of Darda Glain, seeking but not finding.

  Over the next month, Farrix watched as the aurora twisted and writhed, streamers of luminance occasionally flowing down from the north to the eastern horizon. At last he came to Jinnarin—rucksack on his back, bow in hand, arrows in his quiver—saying, “Love, I’m off to follow the flumes, to see just where they are going.”

  Jinnarin, noting the jut of his jaw, realizing that no amount of argument would sway his decision to chase this will-o’-the-wisp of spectral light, hugged him and kissed him, her heart somewhat heavy, though not extraordinarily so…for she and Farrix had been mates for several millennia, and Jinnarin was resigned to his “whims.”

  With a whistle, Farrix mounted up on Rhu, and off through the forest of Darda Glain they headed northeasterly, Jinnarin standing before the hollow tree where they lived, waving her loved one good-bye.