An Armoury of Swords Edited by Fred Saberhagen CONTENTS Blind Man's Blade Fred Saberhagen Woundhealer Walter Jon Williams Fealty Gene Bostwick Dragon Debt Robert E. Vardeman The Sword of Aren-Nath Thomas Saberhagen Glad Yule Pati Nagle Luck of the Draw Michael A. Stackpole Stealth and the Lady Sage Walker About the Authors [BLIND MAN'S BLADE] [WOUNDHEALER] [FEALTY] [DRAGON DEBT] [THE SWORD OF AREN-NATH] [GLAD YULE] [LUCK OF THE DRAW] [STEALTH AND THE LADY] ABOUT THE AUTHORS Gene Bostwick is a 1992 graduate of the Clarion West Writers' Workshop in Seattle, Washington. His short-story sales include the Writers of the Future anthologies and Tomorrow magazine. He's married (14 years) to his number-one fan, critic, and copy editor. He has practiced architecture and built most everything from doghouses to shopping malls. Creating a good story, he has discovered, demands as much and rewards as much as creating a good design. Pati Nagle, native and life-long resident of New Mexico, has been writing fiction since she could hold a pencil. Her work has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and in Infinite Loop, an anthology of science fiction by computer professionals. She has a special interest in the outdoors, particularly New Mexico's wilds, where many of her stories are born. Fred Saberhagen has been writing-and sometimes editing-science fiction and fantasy for more than thirty years. He lives and works in New Mexico with his wife, Joan. Tom Saberhagen grew up in New Mexico where his passions were hiking, reading, and playing the piano. He graduated from Rice University with a degree in mathematics and philosophy. As a business systems consultant, he is engaged in battle with the berserkers of corporate America. Michael A. Stackpole is a writer and game designer who moved from Vermont to Arizona in 1979 after graduating from the University of Vermont. He's best known for his novels in the BattleTech line and his fantasy novel Once a Hero. In his spare time he plays indoor soccer and defends the game industry from allegations of Satanism, murder, and mayhem. Future projects include another fantasy novel, Eyes of Silver, and four Star Wars(tm) X- Wing(tm) novels for Bantam Books. Robert E. Var demon has lived in the Southwest since 1956, a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for most of that time, and is the author of thirty-five fantasy novels, including Tor(r) Books' The Demon Crown series (titles: The Glass Warrior, Phantoms on the Wind, and A Symphony of Storms). Short stories have appeared in many horror anthologies including Greystone Bay, Doom City, SeaHarp Hotel, and most recently in Robert Bloch's anthologies, Psycho Paths and Monsters in Our Midst. Vardeman is a longtime fan of the Swords books and is delighted to have a story in the current anthology. [Editor's note: Sage Walker offers two biographical paragraphs. One of them-she claims-is a fantasy.] Sage Walker has survived an Oklahoma childhood, the Sixties, medical school, and seventeen years of practice in emergency medicine. Tor has scheduled her first novel for publication in April 1996. She is currently working on a fantasy set in Norway and first-century Britain. Sage lives in New Mexico and has been known to sing along with coyotes. Raven-haired, hard-bodied Sage Walker never has to do dishes. She writes three novels a year, all best-sellers. She is twenty-nine years old and attributes her unquenchable good spirits to a diet of champagne, buttered lobster, and Godiva chocolates. Walter Jon Williams lives in New Mexico. His books include Hardwired, Days of Atonement, and Aristoi. Many of his stories, including the novellas "Surfacing" and "Wall, Stone, Craft" were nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards. In addition to the Swords shared-world project, Walter has also written for George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards. Walter's pastimes include kenpo karate, scuba, and small boat sailing.