Michelle’s comment: I wrote this after the Sundered Books. It’s the first of two, and I wrote it over fifteen years ago. Authors have an ambiva­lent rela­tion­ship to their older work, because over time, we learn how to do things better. Every book is the best book we could write at the time that we wrote it…but with each book, that best grows a little more distant. Hunter’s Oath is not, perhaps, as polished as the later books set in the same universe, and it’s possible that if you haven’t read any of the Michelle West novels, you might want to start at a different entry point, such as The Hidden City.

HUNTER’S OATH
by Michelle West

Back Cover: Hunt Magic–
When the covenant was made with the Hunter God, all who dwelt in Breo­danir swore to abide by it. The Hunter Lords – and the hunting dogs to which their minds were specially attuned – would seek out game in the God’s woods to provide food for their people, and the Hunter God would ensure that the Hunters, the land, and the people prospered.

But in payment, once a year the Sacred Hunt must be called, the God’s own Hunt in which the prey became one of the Lords, or his hunt­brother. This was the Hunter’s Oath, sword to by each Lord and his hunt­brother – the comanion chosen from the common folk to remind each Lord of his own ties to humanity. It was the Oath pledged in blood by Gilliam of Elseth and the orphan boy Stephen – and the fulfill­ment of that Oath would lead them to the kind of destiny from which legends were made…

Read the first chapter: Hunter’s Oath.pdf or html.

Mass Market Paper­back: DAW books, October 1995, 0 – 88677-681 – 3, 427 pages. Cover artist: Jody Lee (yay!)
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Michelle’s Note: If you are reading Hidden City and if you are adverse to spoilers, it’s very impor­tant that you do not read the sample chapter here. There are pretty much huge spoilers within the first few pages. They weren’t spoilers at the time that I wrote them, of course, so as a first chapter, it was fine, then. 

I am not a reader or viewer who is adverse to spoilers, but so many of my friends are. So, just in case: This chapter is not one you want to read yet.

HUNTER’S DEATH
by Michelle West

Back Cover: Averalaan–

that most ancient of cities, had long been the home of magics both dark and bright. For the site where this most civi­lized city of mortals now stood had once been a dread place indeed, a citadel of evil ruled by the Lord of the Hells. Only through the greatest of sacri­fices had he been contained and cast back into his own dimen­sion. And though the passing centuries had all but oblit­er­ated the memo­ries of that terrible time, trouble was once again stir­ring in the hidden byways of Averalaan.

The first warning that the Dark Lord’s minions were at work came from a pack of street rats led by a young woman gifted with the ability to see the truth even when it was hidden behind care­fully spell-crafted illu­sions. And as she carried her warning to The Terafin, head of one of the most powerful fami­lies in the land, others, too, were rallying to Averalaan’s aid.

Blessed or cursed by their Hunter God and gifted with his most unique creation, the Hunter Lord Gilliam and his hunt­brother Stephen were about to do the unthink­able. Guided by the seer Evayne, they would journey beyond the borders of their kingdom, some­thing no Hunter Lord had ever done. For only in Aver­alaan could they find their true destiny, even it meant facing the Dark Lord himself…

Mass Market Paper­back: DAW books, June 1996, 0 – 88677-706 – 2, 670 pages. Cover artist: Jody Lee

Read the first chapter: Hunter’s Death.pdf or html.