Winter Moon: Moontide / The Heart of the Moon / Banshee Cries

Praise for

MERCEDES LACKEY

“She’ll keep you up long past your bedtime.”

—Stephen King

“[A] wry and scintillating take on the Cinderella story…resonates with charm as magical as the fairy-tale realm she portrays.”

—BookPage on The Fairy Godmother

“With [Lackey], the principal joy is story; she sweeps you along and never lets you go.”

—Locus

Praise for

TANITH LEE

“Lee’s prose is a waking dream, filled with tropical sensualities.”

—Booklist

“Tanith Lee is an elegant, ironic stylist—one of our very best authors.”

—Locus

Praise for

C.E. MURPHY

“Murphy delivers interesting worldbuilding and magical systems, believable and sympathetic characters and a compelling story told at breakneck pace.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Heart of Stone

“Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.”

—Award-winning author Charles de Lint onThunderbird Falls

MERCEDES LACKEY

is the New York Times bestselling author of the Heralds of Valdemar and A Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, plus several other series and stand-alone books. Mercedes has more than fifty books in print, and some of her foreign editions can be found in Russian, Czech, Polish, French, Italian and Japanese. She has collaborated with such luminaries as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey and Andre Norton. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and frequent collaborator, Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots.

TANITH LEE

was born in 1947, in England. Unable to read until she was almost eight, she began to write at the age of nine. To date she has published almost seventy novels, ten short-story collections and well over two hundred short stories. Lee has also written for BBC Radio and TV. Her work has won several awards, and has been translated into more than twenty languages. She is married to the writer/artist John Kaiine. Readers can find more information about Lee at www.TanithLee.com or www.daughterofthenight.com.

C.E. MURPHY

holds an utterly impractical degree in English and history. At age six, Catie submitted several poems to an elementary school publication. The teacher producing it chose (inevitably) the one Catie thought was the worst of the three, but he also stopped her in the hall one day and said two words that made an indelible impression: “Keep writing.” It was sound advice, and she’s pretty much never looked back. More information about Catie and her writing can be found at www.cemurphy.net.

Winter Moon

MERCEDES LACKEY

TANITH LEE

C.E. MURPHY

CONTENTS

MOONTIDE

Mercedes Lackey

THE HEART OF THE MOON

Tanith Lee

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

BANSHEE CRIES

C.E. Murphy

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

MOONTIDE

Mercedes Lackey

Dedicated to my fellow “Lunatics” at www.LUNA-Books.com, without whom I would be a great deal less sane

Dear Reader,

The world I created for the Five Hundred Kingdoms stories is a place where fairy tales can come true—which is not always a good thing. But it is important to remember that most people living in this world go about their lives blissfully unaware of the force that I call “The Tradition” and its blind drive to send certain lives down predestined paths. As long as their lives are not touched by The Tradition, as long as they do not find themselves replicating the story of some tale, song or myth, most people go about their business never even guessing that such a force exists.

Such are the characters in this story, “Moontide.” There is no mention of The Tradition, nor of fairy godmothers. These folks have magic, indeed, but it is small magic for the most part. Do not underestimate the small magics, however. A great deal can be done with a very little magic at the right time and place. And even more can be done with a heart full of courage, and someone you can trust at your side.

Sincerely,

Mercedes Lackey

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