Book Three	Book Two	Book One

Read more about each book by clicking on the cover.

In The Horsemistress Saga, women experience the ultimate thrill of not only riding a powerful animal, but rising above the ground where no others can go.

• Winged Horse Bloodlines
• Winged Horses and Their History
• Characters in the Saga
• Uplands Recipes
• Readers and Their Horses

Book Three: The Horsemistress Saga

About the Book

Driven by insane jealousy, Duke William is determined to found his own flying school, where the valuable flying horses of Oc will learn to bond with well-born young men—instead of arrogant women. Now, Larkyn Hamley and her beloved Black Seraph must gather all of their allies from the air to the ground. For if they do not soar now, none will ever see the skies again.

Reviews

Booklist:
“In the third book in the Horsemistress Saga, begun by Airs beneath the Moon (2006) and continued in Airs and Graces (2007), young Larkyn Hamley is nearing graduation from the Academy of the Air, but the academy is under threat from the mad Duke William, who plans to close it and open his own flying school devoted to training well-born young men to ride the flying horses of Oc, none of which has ever tolerated having men anywhere nearby. William has posted soldiers at the academy in the hope of capturing the girls’ instructor, Mistress Philippa Winter, who has been forced into hiding. The scenes of horses and riders in flight and battle are breathtaking; political machinations abound; and the dangers to the academy staff and students are palpable as Lark and her beloved horse, Tup, join forces with Mistress Winter and others in a desperate effort to thwart the duke’s evil plans. The saga’s fans are sure to welcome the latest installment.”

–Sally Estes

Book Two: The Horsemistress Saga

About the Book

Larkyn Hamley, the free-spirited country girl who accidentally bonded with a winged horse, is in her second term at the Academy of the Air when the savage Aesks attack a northern village. The Duke refuses to respond, and Larkyn and her beloved teacher, Horsemistress Philippa Winter, find themselves in direct conflict with Duke William as chaos threatens the Duchy of Oc. Philippa’s career, and even Lark’s life, hang in the balance.

Author’s Comments

It’s one of Kalla’s mysteries that winged horses bond to the perfect flyer, and this was never more true than with Larkyn Hamley and her beautiful little stallion Black Seraph, who Lark calls Tup. Tup is as fiercely independent and impulsive as Lark herself, and his spirit and strength are her greatest protection.

Reviews

Monsters and Critics:
“Strong character development, politics, and magical horses all add up to what promises to be a lively and engaging trilogy.”

Booklist:
“Bishop enables us to visualize the horses in solo flight and complicated formations, scenes at the academy are utterly real, and the characters have dimension. A thoroughly satisfying read.”

BookLoons:
“The Horsemistress Saga promises to be an exciting ride. ”

TeensReadToo.com:
“The more I read, the more involved and in love I am with these books. They are completely absorbing. The world that is created is so rich and full and real. The characters are wonderfully interesting and well-developed. I feel like I live inside this world and I know these people. This is great fantasy at work.

I’m not ready for this series to be done yet, and thankfully it isn’t, but I’m not sure I ever want it to end.”

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Excerpt

Airs and Graces

They came across the water in the early morning, emerging from the fogbank like figures from a nightmare. The warboats pierced the rolling mist, long, narrow shapes of blood-red and midnight-black against the gray. Huge dogs with metal collars snarled and slavered in the bows, but the warriors themselves, squat, bearded men in leather helmets and jerkins, stood in ominous silence, swaying with the rocking of the boats. The long oars dipped again and again into the cold green sea. Every boat bristled with spears, and in each stern an archer poised, ready to send a covering barrage of obsidian-tipped death.

The men of Onmarin, which meant every male above the age of ten, were out in their own small boats, fishing for the cod and plaice that swam beneath the glacier. The village was empty except for the old men who stayed behind to work on the drying racks ranged along the docks, women and girls mending nets in their thatched cottages, and little children. There was no one to

protect them, but there was no reason to believe protection was needed. Old Duke Frederick had put an end to the raids from across the Strait, and the fishing villages of the Angles had lived in peace for more than twenty years.

The first shout from the docks brought only raised eyebrows and curiosity.

But the shout was too much for one of the dogs. He roared, and then leapt, huge and black and terrifying, over the bow of the warboat, crashing into the water with a great splash, swimming with powerful strokes toward the land. Moments later the first boat ground into the sand of the beach, and its ugly warriors swarmed over the sides, no longer silent, but yelling in their brutish language.

The fisher-folk of innocent Onmarin understood then. Women began to scream, and children to wail. Mothers clutched babies to their breasts, and herded toddlers and young boys ahead of them as they dashed inland, seeking the dubious safety of the dunes. The old men on the docks stood their ground, shakily, but bravely, wielding their filleting knives against the spears of the raiders.

The awful dogs bounded up the narrow lanes between the cottages, howling. Spears rose and fell, and the filleting knives slashed. Blood began to spill over the weathered boards of the docks and drip through into the icy water below.

And behind the furthest cottage, where a corridor of packed and rutted sand ran between the dunes, two winged horses rose, one shining black, one pale gold. Their powerful wings drove against the cold air, and their riders bent low over their necks.

One of the barbarians caught sight of them, and gave a gleeful shriek. A volley of arrows spewed into the air, but by Kalla’s grace, the winged horses were too far away, their ascent too swift and steep.

They flew as high and as fast as they dared, leaving the coastline behind, banking above the dunes and into the morning sunshine, escaping from the carnage on the ground, fleeing to the safety of Lady Beeth’s protection.

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Book One: The Horsemistress Saga

About the Book

Airs Beneath the Moon is a story of the winged horses of Oc and the women and girls who fly them. The girls who bond with a winged horse spend six years at the Academy of the Air, training. Their bondmates are closer to them than any family member could be, and they devote their entire lives to them. But the son of the Duke of Oc, William, thinks men should also be able to fly, and he will go to any length to make that happen.

Author’s Comments

There is a mystical bond between women and horses, one that is about power, and freedom, and a deep love of beauty. Horses, though large and strong, are sensitive creatures, each with its own personality and its own character. In Airs Beneath the Moon and the books to follow, women experience the ultimate thrill of not only riding a powerful animal, but rising above the ground where no others can go. It’s wish fulfillment, or perhaps a dream realized.

Reviews

Booklist:
“Bishop enables us to visualize the horses in solo flight and complicated formations, scenes at the academy are utterly real, and the characters have dimension. In short, this is a thoroughly satisfying read, fortunately with enough loose ends to justify a sequel.”

—Sally Estes

Read the entire review here: Booklist review on Amazon.com

M & C, Glasgow, Scotland:
“This first in a trilogy about winged horses and the women who ride them does an admirable job of setting up an escalating power struggle. The main antagonist is the new Duke as he attempts to circumvent biology and time honored practices leaving the horsemistresses on the defensive. Strong character development, politics and magical horses all add up to what promises to be a lively and engaging trilogy.”

—M & C

More reviews can be found at: Girls Horse Club, Barnes & Noble SF Editor, BookLoon

And an interview is here: TeensReadToo.com

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Excerpts

Listen to an Audio sample:

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Airs Beneath the Moon

Beyond the barn’s single, unglazed window, the stars began to dissolve, one by one, drowning in the chill gray light of dawn. The cows huddled together, head to tail, for comfort and for warmth. The goats stood silent and uneasy in their night pen, listening to the little dun mare laboring in the box stall. It had gone on all night, Char and her mistress grunting and groaning together. Now, as the sky began to brighten, Char’s time had come at last.

Char pushed. Larkyn Hamley, boots braced in the wet straw, pulled. Birth fluids soaked her tabard and her tangled skirts, and filled the stall with an odor both acrid and sweet. Lark knew the smell to be the essence of coming life, of the force that made the crops grow and the moon wax and wane. It was also the scent of death, of the melting of one time into another. Larkyn Hamley was a girl of the soil and the seasons, and her blood surged with the power of the moment, the alchemy of life striving to be.

“Once again, Char,” she panted. Salty sweat dripped in her eyes, but she had no hand free to wipe it away. She tried to lift her shoulder to get teh worst of it, but a fresh spasm wracked Char’s body, and Lark set herself again to pull ont he foal’s slick fetlocks. “Lovely girl,” Lark said. “That’s my brave girl. Once again!”

The mare’s sides rippled with effort. Lark’s hands cramped, and she begged Kalla for strength, even though she, an Uplands farm girl, had no right to pray to the horse goddess. It was for Char, poor little Char, her foundling.

Lark knew nothing of horses except what the dun mare had taught her. Horses were rare in the Uplands, and there had never been one on Deeping Farm, nor in the village of Willakeep. Lark had stumbled upon Char standing ankle-deep in the icy waters of the Black River, her ribs standing out like the curved pickets of the haymow, and her hide, the color of smoke from the autumn chimneys, torn by brambles. Neither Lark nor her brothers knew then that Char was with foal, but now, just as sharp-toothed winter began to loosen its bite on the Uplands, she had come to term.

The foal lay widdershins, hind feet first. Lark had tried everything she knew to turn it, without success. Once it was on its way, there was nothing left but to see it through. She gasped for air, in rhythm with Char. She tugged, and Char groaned. The mare gave one last heave. There was a deep, rushing sound, and the foal’s body slid, limp and awkward, legs asprawl, to the matted straw.

A gray shroud, streaked with red, masked its nose and mouth. Lark ripped at the gelatinous stuff with her fingers, clearing the tiny muzzle. She bent, and blew fiercely into the foal’s nostrils. A shuddering breath rewarded her, and a little mewling cry. She cried out herself, exclaiming in wonder as she cradled the wet creature in her arms. His coat felt gluey and rough beneath her hands.

When she was certain his breathing was steady, she lifted her eyes. “Char, look!” she said softly. “Look at your little one!”

The mare always responded to Lark’s voice, had done so even on that very first day, when she was so weak she could barely walk. Lark had coaxed her, stumbling step by stumbling step, through the fields to the barn. But now, Char lay exhausted. Her ribs barely moved, and her black forelock tangled in her long eyelashes. Even as Lark watched, the little mare’s breathing slowed., and her dark eyes fixed on some point only she could see.

“Oh, no,” Lark whispered.

Lark was a country girl. She knew the look of death, from slaughtering days, from accidents, from her own mother’s illness. She understood the dimming of the light in the mare’s eyes, the rattle of her last breath, her sigh of release, the stare into nothingness.

Lark, little more than a child herself, hugged the motherless foal to her breast, and cried. She gave in to her grief and exhaustion and shock, and sobbed.

The foal began to mewl and wriggle in her arms, reminding her of the dawn chill. Her wet clothes were icy, and the foal, too, was wet and cold to the touch. She had to get him dry.

She had brought a pile of old towels to the barn with her when she saw that char’s time had drawn near. Now she plucked one from the stack and gently rubbed the foal’s head and neck. He struggled to his feet, leaning against her, long-legged, big-eyed, quaking with weakness. She steadied him with one hand, and reached along his withers and spine with the other to scour away the remnants of the birth sac.

The slow morning sun slanted through the window. Lark felt it on her cheeks. It would be gilding the frosty grasses in the north pasture, glittering on the fallow fields to the south, shining on the slate roof of the farmhouse, silvering the scraps of late snow. It brightened the stall so she could see that the colt was as black as the blackstone of the Uplands that gave the river its name.

She slid the towel down the foal’s ribs, and stopped. Something stayed ehr hand, some solid, living structure beneath the towel.

The foal made the little choked sound again, a sob of his own. With care, Lark pushed him away from her to see what it was that grew below his withers, behind his shoulders.

What she saw filled her with awe and dread.

Everyone knew that an animal such as this belonged to the Duke, and the duke alone. Oc was a tiny and beleaguered duchy, with scarce resources. Its desolate coastline lay open to the sea lanes, coveted by other duchies, by bigger principalities. Creatures such as this, Char’s foal, were Kalla’s special gifts. They were Oc’s most precious resource, the envy of every duke, prince, and king. To tamper with their bloodlines was to commit high treason. Had any of the Hamleys realized…

But of course they hadn’t. How could they? They could never have guessed that little Char carried such a marvel. That such a being would appear here, on Deeping Farm, was an event of such magnitude Lark could hardly comprehend it.

With trembling fingers, she caressed the colt’s slender head, and then held him close, her arms gentle around his fragile neck.

“By Zito’s ears, little one!” she breathed. “You have wings!”

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