Review: Flight of Vengeance by Andre Norton with P.M. Griffin & Mary Schaub
The Turning of the mountains has led to many changes, but in Seakeep, different threats approach from beyond the Witch World!
When an army threatened from the south, the Witches of Estcarp pooled their power together to save their country. Physically twisting and reshaping the mountains along Estcarp’s southern border, they saved their nation from destruction.
But using that much power came with a price. Many Witches perished after The Turning, as this event is called, leaving Estcarp leaderless. Although the human army was stopped, the movement of the mountains stirred other things to wakefulness, sending monsters and Dark powers roaming the lands once again.
The story
Like Storms of Victory, its predecessor collection, Flight of Vengeance contains two novellas. The first is Mary H. Schaub’s “Exile” while the second is the sequel to P.M. Griffin’s entry in Storms. Griffin’s tale is called “Falcon’s Hope” and begins where “Seakeep” left off, while Andre Norton once more introduces us to both tales through the eyes of former Borderer turned scholar and chronicler Duratan. “Exile” follows the life of Nolar, a young girl from a noble family who is cast out due to the odd, large red birthmark that mars her face. Her father cannot bear to look at her because she resembles his first wife, her deceased mother, too closely. His second wife – who is of Falconer stock – holds to her race’s distaste for imperfect offspring and wants Nolar gone.
Sent to live on a farm, Nolar becomes friends with an old scholar named Ostbor. A kind-hearted man, Ostbor takes her in, teaches her to read and write, and makes her his apprentice. When he dies of old age some years later, she inherits his house and remains as a healer for the local residents. At least until her father summons her to the castle to attend one of her half-sister’s weddings.
Nolar soon discovers she was actually called home in order to try and match her with a young nobleman. But when the prospective groom’s family sees her marred face, they turn the offer down and she is cast out once again. Among the relatives who have come to the wedding, however, are two Witches. One of whom is related to Nolar through her mother but shows little interest in her. Her companion, on the other hand, studies the young girl before admitting in private that she has dreamt of Nolar and of Lormt, the repository of knowledge the Witches shun because most of the scholars are men.
Not long after this, the Turning occurs. During the upheaval Nolar receives a desperate telepathic summons from the same Witch, asking for her help and telling her to go to Lormt. Compelled by the call, Nolar sets off into an unknown future – and a battle for control of a source of power that can heal or kill, depending upon who wields it!
“Falcon’s Hope” carries on the tale of Una of Seakeepdale and Tarlach of the Falconers. At the finale for “Seakeep” Tarlach had come to Lormt in the hope of finding a means to save his race, which has been rendered homeless and now faces extinction. For while Falconer men are celebrated mercenaries known to keep their oaths to the death, they are also infamous for hating women. When they had their base in the mountains of Estcarp’s southern border they could keep their own females in secluded villages, to visit only when they needed to produce a new generation to follow them.
The Turning destroyed all of that, and the situation is dire, made more so when Una is injured on her way to Lormt to join in the nigh-hopeless search. Tarlach rushes her to safety and healing as fast as he can, but soon he and the Holdlady find another threat knocking at their door. A force of fighting men from another world plans to invade the Witch World to take it for themselves, and they want to establish a base in High Hallack from which to launch this incursion.
What unfortunate Dale will be the first to fall? None other than Una and Tarlach’s beloved Seakeep. If they cannot return in time and mount a defense, the Dale and all the world is lost!
The characters
Duratan actually receives some extra characterization in Flight of Vengeance, being a member of the cast of “Falcon’s Hope.” Nolar, an interesting and endearing character in her own right, does not get to interact with him much in “Exile” but it is hinted that the two grow closer the longer they work together in Lormt. Nolar herself is a thoughtful, curious, and determined character one is happy to travel with. The reserves of will power she unlocks facing her foes in her own story will make a reader cheer.
Una and Tarlach’s return is a welcome one as readers will be able to follow along with their continuing relationship, which they must keep secret due to his race’s customs. Falconers see any man who falls for a “mare’s” wiles as a rabid dog, and with the two of them trying to save his people, that is the last thing they need. The addition of the Falconer healer Pyra, who escaped to Estcarp before the Turning, only adds to the fun as this no-nonsense woman decides to intervene on her friends’ behalf and that of her race. It’s too bad we didn’t get more stories with these characters – I would love to see what they would get up to next!
The world
“Exile” takes place in familiar territory in Estcarp, but it offers a new look at the early days following The Turning, when the mountains were freshly changed and people were still coming to terms with the event. Though Schaub delves a little too deeply into the worldbuilding for my tastes, she manages to keep things interesting and maintain the thread of tension as Nolar searches for a way to cure the Witch who summoned her.
“Falcon’s Hope” delves more deeply into not only the intricacies of Falconer life, but adds “urban legends” of a sort to the area around Lormt. In itself the idea is fascinating and entertaining, but added to the threat that builds in the latter half of the story, it’s absolutely mind-blowing by today’s standards. This is some of the best worldbuilding I have read yet.
The politics
Once again, there are little to no politics in the narratives beyond a few comments that make it clear the male and female sexes occasionally have erroneous opinions regarding one another. Some might think the major enemy in “Falcon’s Hope” are political, but given the book was first printed in December 1992 and the bombing of the World Trade Center occurred in February of 1993, that’s more coincidence than a political commentary of some kind.
Content warning
As stated previously, the Falconers survive as a race via rape. Though it is handled in delicate terms, that is something which prospective readers may dislike. It also must be said that the “urban legend” of Lormt has some nightmare-level physical effects; the victims’ bodies decay rapidly while they are still alive after they encounter the creature described in the story. While it is not dwelt on, this moment in the narrative is certainly disconcerting.
Who is it for?
Andre Norton fans will enjoy this book, particularly if they have already read Storms of Victory, to which Flight of Vengeance is a companion. Fantasy readers and those who love a good romance will find it entertaining as well, and there is just enough genuine horror to give fans of that genre proper goosebumps, too.
Why read it?
Who likes cliffhangers? “Seakeep” was the first half of the story, and “Falcon’s Hope” is the second. If you like one, you are going to want the other, making purchasing this book a necessity.