Eagle's Beak and Wings of Bronze, or Something Unusual Happens to Allis

By Deborah J. Ross

When sweet, slow-witted Alis gets shipped off to be the bride of the Duke's son, she isn't quite sure what to make of her situation, especially the changes that happen to her during the full moon. Soon she's holding her own in conversation with a sonnet-composing dragon and a contentious two-headed roc. Is she cursed to become a were-griffin or is the world finally making sense?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deborah J. Ross
• Release date: Sep 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201991111

Deborah J. Ross

Deborah J. Ross is an award-nominated author of fantasy and science fiction. She’s written a dozen traditionally published novels and somewhere around six dozen pieces of short fiction. After her first sale in 1983 to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress, her short fiction has appeared in F & SF, Asimov’s, Star Wars: Tales from Jabba’s Palace, Realms of Fantasy, Sisters of the Night, MZB’s Fantasy Magazine, and many other anthologies and magazines. Her recent books include Darkover novels Thunderlord and The Children of Kings (with Marion Zimmer Bradley); Collaborators, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist/James Tiptree, Jr. Award recommended list (as Deborah Wheeler); and The Seven-Petaled Shield, an epic fantasy trilogy based on her “Azkhantian Tales” in the Sword and Sorceress series. Deborah made her editorial debut in 2008 with Lace and Blade, followed by Lace and Blade 2, Stars of Darkover (with Elisabeth Waters), Gifts of Darkover, Realms of Darkover, and a number of other anthologies.

Book preview

Thirsty Redwoods Press

Boulder Creek California

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

All resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Copyright ©1995 by Deborah Wheeler, © 2015 by Deborah J. Ross

First published in Realms of Fantasy magazine Dec. 1995

All rights reserved.

Cover image: A griffin, by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677). Public domain.

Eagle’s Beak and Wings of Bronze

Or, Something Unusual Happens to Allis

One summer afternoon , Lady Caroline hitched up her skirts, rolled two vinegar barrels into the corner of the cool, stone-floored herbarium, and sat down for a private chat with her daughter, Allis.

You’re almost a woman, my dear, and it’s time you learned the family secret. The truth is, we’re were.

Allis’s soft hazel eyes wandered to the hanging bundles of rosemary and feverfew. Where?

"Not ‘where.’ ‘Were’." Lady Caroline sighed. Her sons were small and lean, as black-eyed and quick-tongued as she, while her only daughter...

Were, she repeated, speaking slowly so Allis could understand, as in were-wolves. But not until your woman’s cycles come, and almost certainly not a wolf. I’m not, and neither is your Aunt Jessie. Our family tradition has always been far more imaginative.

Allis heard the sigh and the patience in her mother’s voice. Drifting on the patter of words, she guessed that something was going to happen to her, something that involved turning into an animal. Not a wolf, for she wasn’t nearly clever enough to be a wolf. Something slow and sleepy, like she felt right now. A lizard dozing in the sun? A turtle on a log?

Oh, dear. Suppose she became a were-turtle and nibbled on ants’ eggs? When she turned back into a girl, would the eggs still be inside her stomach?

Just come to me when something unusual happens, Lady Caroline said.

Unusual? Like being able to read Latin? Allis sighed. With her wits, she would probably end up as a cockroach.

FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS nothing went right at the manor. After a terrible wheat harvest, the Duke conscripted half the field men for his latest campaign. The oldest brother married, and Allis never knew what to say in those all-too-frequent occasions when his new wife, Ivy, would jab her with an elbow and say, "So what does the dummy think about that?"

The next spring, the