I owe my heartfelt thanks also to that talented and gracious lady Anne McCaffrey, for her kindness and patience in answering my endless questions about horses and, latterly, the whole writing biz. I’m so glad we’ve met, and I can’t thank you enough for your friendship and your solid support through all the varied craziness, Anne. Thanks a million. You’re an absolute star.
My thanks are also due to:
Stephen Hickman, for providing so wondrous a portrait of Salera to grace the cover.
Dr. Penny Smith, glider pilot and occasional Mistress of the Revels (or, if you insist, Senior Production Editor) at Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, who has very kindly and on several occasions told me about large things that glide through the air and how they do it. Any idiotic mistakes concerning the flight of dragons are my fault entirely, however, and have nothing to do with the information young Penster has provided.
Catherine MacDonald, brilliant baritone in our Sweet Adelines quartet, who is a midwife in real life—largely, I suspect, to support her singing habit. Catherine has been my advisor on matters of midwifery, for which I am very grateful, but again, any dreadful howlers that may have arisen in that area are all my very own.
Christopher, for regular assistance in seeing things logically from Berys’s point of view, for talking me out of hydroplaning dragons, and for helping to keep me as sane as I ever get anyway.
Deborah Turner Harris, ever and always, for helping me out with plot problems, always knowing what questions to ask, and for being for so many years a terrific writer and a true friend of my heart.
And finally, though not in any sense last, I here thank my partner, the amazing Dr. Steven Beard, for patience high above and far beyond the call of duty, and for always being amenable to providing a cheery word, a sandwich and a cup of tea when I was not of this world, or a really awful pun when drastic measures were required.
I couldn’t have done it without you, gang.
—Elizabeth
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE LESSER KINDRED
Copyright © 2001 by Elizabeth Kerner
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Edited by Claire Eddy
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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eISBN 9781466801714
First eBook Edition : September 2011
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-19126
First edition: January 2001
First mass market edition: October 2001
The Lesser Kindred Page 46