The Black Gryphon

"He's not coming back this time," Amberdrake said quietly.
His hertasi companion, Gesten, looked up at him with his expressive eyes and exhaled through his nostrils. He held his pebbel-scaled snout shut for along minute. "He'll come. He always does," Gesten finally said. "Somehow."

The story:
Skandranon, the Black Gryphon, vain and arrogant, is one of the Mage of Silence, Urtho's, trusted helpers in his war against Ma'ar. Under Urtho, humans and non-humans fight to stop Ma'ar's destructive forces.

His good friend Amberdrake, a Kaled'a'in kestra'chern, Mind-Healer, waits in fear each time Skan flies his missions, and dreads the day the gryphon will not return.

The war is going badly, and Ma'ar has a new weapon that wreaks havoc among Urtho's forces. Urtho needs all his forces, humans and non-humans alike. And even with their support, mere survival seems impossible, let alone victory.

Thoughts about the book:
In many ways, a traditional fantasy story with good against evil. As are most of the books from the world of Valdemar. Though a thousand years before the founding of Valdemar, the world is the same.

Or, almost. This is the story that is mentioned as the Cataclysm in the stories of Valdemar; here is told the reason why magic is unreliable. Here is told the story of the Kaled'a'in; those who would split into two races, and become Tayledras and Shin'a'in. Here is told the story of how the gryphons came to be.

And this is one of the very few books I have read where the main character is not human, nor even remotely so.

About the author Mercedes Lackey
About the next book, The White Gryphon
About the third book, The Silver Gryphon

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