Bedlam's Bard

Eric Banyon, musician, is out playing the blues on his flute one day, but he couldn't have known that the desperate sadness of his music would free a young elven noble from the magical prison he has been languishing in for centuries--nor does he believe it!

With San Francisco doomed to fall off the continent, the bard must summon the Nightflyers, the soul-devouring shadow creatures from the dreaming world.

The prequel to the genre bestselling urban fantasies Knight of Ghosts and Shadows and Summoned to Tourney. A woman with a miraculous power to heal is sought not only by the L.A. gangs who need her power, but by an ancient abomination and evil elves from another world.

After the events chronicled in Bedlam's Bard, world-saving bard and magician Eric hopes to settle down to the quiet life. No such luck: his apartment building is a safe-house for a group of occult Guardians protecting New York from supernatural evil. And there's a new evil for them to guard against... Unethical researchers are planning to raise a psychotropic drug-enslaved army of mercenaries. But this gets the attention of Aerune mac Audelaine, lord of the dark Unseleighe Sidhe, who hopes to use the drugs to break through to the human world. Both plans will bring terror to the world-and both are threatened by the very existence of Eric Banyon. With his possibly loyal companions-a beautiful elven half-breed and a gargoyle-Eric heads for a three-way battle of wizardry that will determine Gotham's fate-and his own.

Set a trap for a sorcerer … without being trapped yourself! Eric Banyon has settled into the New York whirl nicely: he's doing well at Juilliard, he's made a lot of new friends, he's defeated a lord of the Unseleighe Sidhe … Or has he? Aerune mac Audelaine, whose beloved was killed by mortal men, was determined to destroy the human race until Eric, with a little help from his new friends the Guardians, thwarted Aerune's plans and exposed the chemists whose designer poison turned ordinary humans into zombie Mages. The human side of the threat is finished, but Aerune, like the rest of the Sidhe, has a long memory … and a lot of patience. He's also got Jeanette Campbell, former Threshold Black Ops, and the science behind the murder. Can Eric stop Aerune's latest plan? Only if he finds out about it before it's too late, but between babysitting a visiting Healer, training a banjo-playing Bard, attending his daughter's Underhill Naming ceremony, dealing with a dragon-and trying to survive summer school-Eric's got his hands full. Saving the world has never been more necessary-or come at a higher price.

Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, has just discovered that he has a younger brother named Magnus whom his parents have kept secret from him. Just as Eric did years ago, 17 -year-old Magnus has run away from home to escape his dysfunctional family. Determined to find him, Eric finds himself caught in a desperate race against time. Young homeless children in New York have created a bizarre mythology about a demon called Bloody Mary who prays on young children - and somehow Bloody Mary has taken on an independent life and now stalks the streets of the city. Eric's friends, the Guardians, seem powerless to stop her. Anyone who sees her is marked for death. And Magnus has seen her.

Eric Banyon, also known as Bedlam's Bard, managed to rescue his young brother Magnus from what seemed to be a killer demon (in Mad Maudlin), but now he must rescue Magnus again, this time from their tyrannical parents. Eric does not look forward to the battle, but is confident he can gain custody. His financial sources are virtually unlimited, his friend Ria Llewellyn heads the most high-powered law firm in New York, and in a pinch he and his friends can use to magic powers, even flummoxing a DNA test, it comes to that. What Eric does not know is that his parents are allied with the evangelist Billy Fairchild, who himself is a tool of the evil Unseleighe elves, who feed off human sorrow and suffering. Fairchild specializes in getting "bad" children to shape up, which is accomplished by letting a soulsucker-malevolent creature from the elf world-drain the victim of all talent, creativity, and will, leaving an obedient zombie husk behind. If Magnus and his friend Ace, who is also on the run from her twisted parents, fall into Fairchild's hands, they will join the Unseleighe's zombie ranks. And Eric's bardic magic may not be enough to save them.

Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill are the biggest names in the urban fantasy subgenre-where elves, banshees, trolls, and even stranger creatures walk modern city streets, their presence, and even their existence unsuspected by the human inhabitants. Now these two present a volume of all new urban fantasy, with a stellar lineup of the best new fantasy writers, such as Roberta Gellis, Dave Freer and Eric Flint, Diana Paxton, and more-including two new stories and an afterword by Mercedes Lackey herself, as well as a story by Rosemary Edghill. This is an indispensable volume for fans of urban fantasy in general, and the thousands of fans of Mercedes Lackey in particular.

Deeply depressed Olivia, whose parents are divorcing, is ripe for manipulation. And swimming star Blake is looking for someone just like her. Although her friend tries to warn her, Olivia falls for his ploys and accepts an invitation to go to the Adirondack resort camp of Lake Endor with him and his family. But all is not as it seems at the hundred year old resort. Not only does Olivia discover that Blake is not the guy she thought he was, there is something sinister afoot at the lake. There is something lying beneath the waters of Lake Endor. Something not of this world. Will Olivia be drawn under or will she allow true friends to draw her from the lure of oblivion?