Instead, he is asked to live, and find a new way forward. If it weren’t for Yfandes, the Companion who Chose him, Vanyel may have been ready to give up and move into the next life. However, betrayal and disaster lead to huge changes for Vanyel. But it’s only three years until he’s of age. If it came out that Vanyel was sleeping with another man, his father would call him home, lock him away, keep him from Tylendel forever. However, the two have to keep their relationship a secret. He’s light to Vanyel’s dark, laughter to his silences, and Tylendel arouses in Vanyel feelings he never knew existed. Tylendel is a year older and a Herald-Mage in training.

And instead of being ignored, he finds a court of admirers who hang on his every word. Instead of hating his weapon lessons, he delights in them. Instead of being the smartest student, he’s one of the worst, constantly having to catch up. Once in Valdemar, Vanyel’s world turns upside down. It’s exile, and for all that Vanyel knew his father didn’t like him, he never thought, not even for a moment, that his father hated him. He sends him away to the city of Valdemar where he will be placed into the care of Savil, Vanyel’s aunt and Herald Mage of Valdemar. Instead, Vanyel has become an ornament in his mother’s court, playing music and courtly games of love, doing his best to avoid his father’s attentionĪfter a fight with the swordmaster leaves him with a broken arm, his father seems to wash his hands of Vanyel completely. No matter what he does, no matter how hard he tries, he can never gain his father’s approval. Vanyel is slender and graceful, light-boned, and both too pretty and too smart for his own good. Fifteen-year-old Vanyel Askhekvron has spent all of his life trying to please his father, who sees nothing of himself in his son.

Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey