Fall of Angels (84 page)

  
Nylan's eyes slowly moved eastward across the hillside. In the damp late autumn air, after the rains, the black and white had faded into gray, and a few sprigs of fireweed had sprouted, along with some grass.

  
For a moment, he closed his eyes, then opened them. The expanse that had been seared by the laser remained gray, faded gray.

  
He supposed everything faded in time. And in time, new life filled in for the old. He disengaged Dyliess's fingers from his earlobe and held them, his green eyes meeting his daughter's green eyes.

  
Behind him, he heard the tower door open and close, but he continued to stand on the damp stones of the road, ignoring the small, sharp knives in his eyes, holding Dyliess and taking in the sodden gray ashes that had been flame and fire, man and mount, green and grass.

  
Then he turned to see who had followed him.

  
Ayrlyn, red hair as intense as the gray ashes were dull, crossed the causeway, carrying Weryl. She smiled. "He wanted to see where you had gone. So I brought him."

  
Nylan smiled at the healer who had begun to heal him, and they turned back and looked once more at the gray hillside, framed by rock and tree, where life again had begun to sprout.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., lives in Cedar City, Utah.

TOR BOOKS BY L. E. MODESITT, JR.

THE SAGA OF RECLUCE

1
 
The Magic of Recluce

2
 
The Towers of the Sunset

3
 
The Magic Engineer

4
 
The Order War

5
 
The Death of Chaos

6
 
Fall of Angels

7
 
The Chaos Balance

8
 
The White Order

9
 
Colors of Chaos

10 Magi'i of Cyandor

11 Scion of Cyandor

THE SPELLSONG CYCLE

The Soprano Sorceress

The Spellsong War

Darksong Rising

THE ECOLITAN MATTER

The Ecologic Envoy

The Ecolitan Operation

The Ecologic Secession

The Ecolitan Enigma

THE FOREVER HERO

Dawn for a Distant Earth

The Silent Warrior

In Endless Twilight

Of Tangible Ghosts

The Ghost of the Revelator

The Timegod

Timediver's Dawn

The Hammer of Darkness

The Parafaith War

Adiamante

The Green Progression (with Bruce Scott Levinson)

TOR BOOKS The Best in Fantasy

ELVENBANE - Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

  
"A richly detailed, complex fantasy collaboration."-Marion Zimmer Bradley

SUMMER KING, WINTER FOOL - Lisa Goldstein

  
"Possesses all of Goldstein's virtues to the highest degree."-Chicago Sun-Time

JACK OF KINROWAN - Charles de Lint

  
Jack the Giant Killer and Drink Down the Moon reprinted in one volume.

THE MAGIC ENGINEER - L.E. Modesitt, jr.

  
The tale of Dorrin the blacksmith in the enormously popular continuing saga of Recluce.

SISTER LIGHT, SISTER DARK - Jane Yolen

  
"The Hans Christian Andersen of America."-Newsweek

THE GIRL WHO HEARD DRAGONS - Anne McCaffrey

  
"A treat for McCaffrey fans."-Locus

GEIS OF THE GARGOYLE - Piers Anthony

  
Join Gary Gar, a guileless young gargoyle disguised as a human, on a perilous pilgrimage in pursuit of a philter to rescue the magical land of Xanth from an ancient evil.

The sixth volume in the bestselling Saga of Recluce Fall of Angels

  
"The latest novel in Modesitt's Recluce series is one of the best and most accessible for readers new to the saga....Will hold existing series fans and probably recruit some new ones."

-Booklist

  
"Fascinating! A big, exciting novel of the battle between good and evil, and the oath between."

-Gordon R. Dickson on The Magic of Recluce

  
"This is a writer who cares about his characters and his world. This is disciplined fantasy, not fluff. L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is uncompromising when it comes to the effects of magic, both on the natural world and on the human heart. There are no cheap solutions to the problems of Recluce. Because of that, it is a world worth returning to."

-Megan Lindholm, coauthor of Gypsy

  
Fall of Angels

  
"Modesitt's character development is solid, and the novel makes intriguing use of technology in a fantasy setting. ... Fans of the series should enjoy this sixth entry, particularly for its explication of the myths and legends of latter-day Recluce."

-Publishers Weekly

  
"Fall of Angels is an excellent lost-colony story in the tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series or Julian May's Exile saga. Modesitt follows the very real concerns for food, latrines, shelter, medicine, and the struggle for power within the group, while tracing the lives of gifted men and women in the process of becoming legends."

-Locus

  
"Mr. Modesitt delivers a gripping tale with complex and imaginative characters to hold readers in total thrall."

-Romantic Times