Free Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey Page A

Firecat had said.
    Somehow he knew his plan, played out to perfection this evening, was but one step in a journey Torgon and Sosha would make together. And in the darkness of the barn, he could have sworn he saw a large golden cat smiling.
     
    Author’s note: Read “The Cat Who Came to Dinner” in the anthology Sun in Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar , edited by Mercedes Lackey, which tells the story of Torgon and Sosha’s son Reulan and his own experience with a much more talkative Firecat.

The Power of Three
    by Brenda Cooper
    Brenda Cooper’s novels include The Silver Ship and the Sea, Reading The Wind , and, with Larry Niven, Building Harlequin’s Moon . Brenda’s short fiction includes multiple fantasy stories set in the mythical High Hills, an alternate Laguna Beach, CA, and harder science fiction that has appeared in Analog Science Fiction , Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine , Strange Horizons , and Nature Magazine . Brenda’s very honored to be included in these anthologies, as she’s whiled away many pleasant hours in Valdemar and shared the Valdemar books with countless others. What a treat!
    Bard Breda focused on the fight in front of her. In the center of the outside practice rink attached to the salle, two young women wearing worn practice armor sparred with dented practice staffs. Two matching faces wore rivulets of sweat down their foreheads and cheeks, and more sweat glued matching fire-red hair to the slender napes of two necks. For every blow Rhiannon struck, Dionne parried and sent another, which Rhiannon parried. Neither had any advantage over the other, not in quickness, speed, or strength.
    Morning sunshine illuminated the two fighters and the two watchers alike. The first of the season’s swallows labored around them, chattering over stray bits of straw for their nests. The twins’ staffs made loud thunks as they struck each other fairly and well, over and over.
    Breda cleared her throat to gain attention from Gavin, her counterpart from the Healer’s Collegium. “Do you see why I brought you here? They’re mirrors of each other. Can’t stand to be apart for longer than a class period, and we’ve let them live that way. We even let them share a room when they first got here, and somehow no one thought to separate them. Other Bardic students don’t room with Healers.”
    Gavin smiled. “Because you all make too much noise.” The Master Healer shook his head. “They seem healthy enough.”
    “Here, where it’s safe. But just last week the Arms-master told me that together they can beat any other pair from their year-groups, even the healers, and yet neither of them can best another single fighter.”
    Rhiannon and Dionne stopped together and, as if on cue, took great gulps of air.
    “They even have the same cuts and bruises,” Breda pointed out. Both girls sported purpling bruises on their forearms from failing to block with their staffs, and each had matching scabbed-over bramble cuts on their calves.
    Gavin grunted. “When they came to the Collegium, their mother said that if one of them fell, to just wait and call the Healer after they’d both fallen. That’s not unusual for twins. We’ve seen it before.”
    “Both falling maybe. But sympathy bruises when only one of them falls?”
    Gavin arched an eyebrow at her.
    Breda fell silent, watching the girls spar. Surely it wasn’t healthy for each to be so dependent on the other? If one of them died, she was pretty sure the other one would die at almost the same time. When they left Haven to pursue their special Gifts, it would be rare good luck for them both to live to old age. At least in these times.
    “Rhiannon sings well by herself,” Gavin said. “Her solos at student concerts make me cry or laugh. A merchant I bought herbs from last week talked about her and was happy when I said some of her herbs might be used by Rhiannon’s sister.”
    Breda sighed. “You’ve only seen her when Dionne’s in the