Tanith Lee’s birthday is today (September 19). She was born in 1947 and passed away in 2015. For her birthday, I decided to read something a bit longer than a short story.  (I promise I will review Melmoth the Wanderer soon.) I settled on “Companions on the Road”. It’s the title story of the collection of two novellas pictured there on the right.

Havor was orphaned at five, ran away from the orphanage at ten, and after wandering about doing a variety of odd jobs, he joined the Bear King’s army at sixteen. Now eighteen, he’s risen to the equivalent of sergeant in the army. The war is almost over. The Bear King is laying siege to the city of Avillis. Avillis is ruled by a dark mage, along with his son and daughter, a beautiful blond.

On the first night of the siege, the boy Lukon, a recent recruit in Havor’s unit comes and asks Havor to take what little pay he has earned to his mother and sisters if he should die in battle. Lukon tells Havor how to find the farm. Havor agrees.

The siege doesn’t last long. The people of Avillis hate their ruler and open the gates to the Ber King. Lukon doesn’t survive, and Havor, who has grown tired of the killing, resigns his commission. Before he can leave the city, He gets lured into a scheme his former second in command and a cutpurse to steal a treasure in a secret chamber under the castle. Havor thinks to give some of the treasure to Lukon’s family to mitigate the sting of grief that will accompany the news of Lukon ‘s death. The treasure turns out to be a golden chalice embedded with jewels. The men take and flee the city.

Too bad for them.

Of course the thing is cursed. It isn’t long before the trio realize they’re being followed by three figures on horseback, two clothed completely black and one with a golden (read blond) glow about her head.

What started out, for Havor at least, to be an errand of mercy turns into a flight for their lives. It doesn’t take Havor long to learn that he’s made a terrible miscalculation.

Tanith Lee

This was in many ways a perfect story. The characters were well-fleshed out. The setting had just enough detail to make it a convincing world without the excess of word building that seems to infest so much of modern fantasy. Lee does an excellent job of building the tension. And while the ending wasn’t exactly a surprise, it was satisfying. While these alone wouldn’t make the story perfect, the novella length did. It was short enough that I could read it in less than a day. That’s a major bonus with the schedule I’ve got now.

So raise a glass to Tanith Lee, and enjoy one of her works, if not this one. While not everything I’ve read by her has been to my taste, I’ve enjoyed most of the things I’ve read by her.  And I’ll definitely be reading more.