Series fans will not be disappointed.' - Publishers Weekly ' Eye Spy feels like a present written especially for me. Lackey's characters, meanwhile, are admirable as ever as they learn to work together. Praise for Valdemar 'The high stakes and the dangerous journey keep the story moving at a brisk pace. And when one of Urtho's Seers wakes from a horrifying vision in which she sees a devastating magical weapon being placed in the hands of Maar's common soldiers, Skandrannon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protective of Urtho's powerful Spell of Silence. Now Maar is once again advancing on Urtho's Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his own-cruel birds of prey ready to perform any evil their creator may demand of them.

He is the fulfillment of everything that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realm-a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Maar.

Courageous, bold, and crafty, Skan is everything a gryphon should be. Skandranon Rashkae is perhaps the finest specimen of his race, with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight and sharp intelligence. It is an age when Valdemar is yet unfounded, its organization of Heralds yet unformed, and magic is still a wild and uncontrolled force.

The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey