By The Sword, sometimes called Kerowyn’s Tale, is the first of what I call the Heraldic Biographies – by which I mean stand-alone novels describing an individual Herald’s life from the moment of being Chosen to the completion of their life’s main adventure. Kerowyn’s story substantially predates the rest, and ends up being vital to later events.
But first, who exactly is Kerowyn? Simple: the granddaughter of Kethry (from the Vows and Honor sequence), Kerowyn is the eldest daughter of a minor noble whose marriage to Kethry’s only utterly brainless daughter was his one and only big lucky break. Kerowyn is left with an unexciting life running herd on the kitchen and managing the household while dreading her father’s eventual choice of husband. Until, that is, her younger brother’s wedding ends in disaster – with assassins, aided by magic, killing her father, kidnapping her sister, and leaving every able-bodied male in the keep too wounded to follow.
But Kerowyn’s life has taught her that solving problems is a matter of determining what is necessary, and doing it, regardless of whether it is particular proper for her to be the one doing it. It is clearly necessary for someone to ride out after the attackers and at least make a token effort to rescue their hostage, lest the father-in-law take offense. Since all the men of the family are dead or wounded, Kerowyn must be the one to go. The ballad of Kerowyn’s Ride is still sung in Valdemar decades later, although the Bards have a disturbing tendency to view it as allegory…
