Vanyel Ashkevron, Herald-Mage of Valdemar, is no longer young, and no longer on the front lines. His tremendous talents of mind and magic – along with an impressive reputation – are employed within the walls of Haven, running the kingdom of Valdemar according to the wishes of King Randale. But Randale’s health is failing fast, and there are other problems lurking just out of sight. The “ordinary” Heralds, without Vanyel’s mage-talents, feel themselves worthless in comparison… and the feeling is returned by the people of Valdemar, who would rather deal with a problem themselves then call for help and receive just an ordinary Herald.
It’s a problem with no easy solution, but it must be solved – and solved quickly. Because Valdemar is running out of Herald-Mages: they are dying faster than they can be replaced, and the deaths grow more and more suspicious with each new victim. Is something killing off Valdemar’s Herald-Mages? If so… how? And why?
Magic’s Price is the culmination of a fantastically-written journey through the life of a legend, a man whose tale is still told in a Valdemar two centuries older, and though they know it not, a man whose decisions in the final days of Valdemar’s Herald-Mages have shaped the course of those two centuries more than any other single hand.
But the story is not about the legend of Vanyel; it is about the person who lived it. Magic strong enough to shape a nation will not heal a lifetime’s worth of broken heart, nor turn aside a tragic fate. Mercedes Lackey has always been good at showing the human side of a heroic figure, and the story of Vanyel Ashkevron’s life and death are her masterwork.
