March 2015: the story paid off, since I'm now 8 books and counting deep into the Wars of Light and Shadow series. Still recommended before The Curse of the Mistwraith, a must-read before Stormed Fortress.

Powerful short story, compelling and intense, about foreordained destiny entwining with hope and a woman's courage.
The story opens with the protagonist, young Meiglin, fleeing from a doomed life in the bawdyhouse where she has spent her childhood, with a terrible knowledge and hunted dreams. Janny Wurts' evocative writing style vividly portrays how Meiglin meets her destiny and fights for what she holds dear.
I picked this up as my first introduction to the Wars of Light and Shadow series, there are many references to people and events I gather related to the main series which have piqued my curiosity.read-ebooks4 s Laura1,153 54

I normally don't read short stories because they almost always leave me irked due to lack of substance or proper ending. This one however delivered on both counts.

Written in Janny's evocative prose, this is a tale of hope and courage that beautifully fleshes out the events of the Wars of Light and Shadows series.

"Child of Prophecy precedes Mistwraith by about 5 centuries and shows the antecedent action that feeds into the political deadlocks that exist as Mistwraith opens, and that are, actually deep rooted and quite complex. It will set your footing for entering that world with a deeper understanding of the divisions in society." -- Janny Wurts

That being said, the story had me hooked from the very first line and I was rooting for Meiglin from the very first page.

At 14 years of age she is forced on the streets with nothing but the clothes on her back. In a lawless time, she is all alone, without kin and no place to turn to, driven by a blood heritage she wasn't even aware of and in danger of being hunted down for bounty if her parentage is revealed. But she finds the courage to stand fast and fight for what she believes is right and for what she holds dear.

This is also a good start for those who want to dip their fingers into the Wars of Light and Shadow, as it hints at the complexity of the series and will also allow you to get a feel for the author's writing style.
read-in-2018 short-stories-and-novellas3 s John Scroggins41 10

A nice addition to a already awesome series. Short but packed with foreshadowing. At this time I'm about a third of the way through curse of the mistwraith and am belatedly following along with a at this time 9 month old reddit readalong and the person writing the chapter summaries mentioned this story as a reference to check out and even janny wurts said she wrote it to be read before the first book or at any point so at 40 pages I went ahead and can't say I'm sorry to have read it 4 stars easy2 s Blaise397 106

Great little story with big implications for the main series. 1 P.L. StuartAuthor 5 books495

"Shroud a light in a blanket, it must start a fire...Water speaks truth child. Here, perhaps, a thorn bush might sprout, that could have grown, but for carelessness. Yet for want of this moisture, somewhere else, another useful plant withers. A seed bears no harvest, and a child perhaps, starves for the lack of its sustenance. That death in turn may be the one thing that brings on the ruin of a tribe. Worse than that, maybe, if the lost child's destiny was fated. The waste of that life might perhaps come to open the rift that unravels the world."

One seemingly insignificant life can mean everything, in "Child of Prophecy", a heart-breaking yet hopeful approximately 30-page short story, set in the universe of Janny Wurts' main series, "The Wars of Light and Shadow". 

This story is available to be purchased online, only on the author's website, as an ebook.

https://www.paravia.com/StudioShop/in...

A young woman's courage is put to the test, in this tale of predestination, prophecy, and overcoming the odds stacked against you, to attempt to forge a brighter future. 

Child trafficking and prostitution plague our present day world, and it also is a detestable scourge in the world of Athera that the author has created. 

Approximately five hundred years before the events of "Curse of the Mistwraith", the first book in the main "Wars of Light and Shadow" series, the reader is brought to the mean streets of Durn. 

There, poor Meiglin has been raised in a brothel, her mother a prostitute, earning her keep for both herself and her daughter. Meiglin's mother is getting past prime age for selling her charms, and sadly, it's Meiglin's turn to enter the world's oldest profession.

Meiglin, being groomed for the same future as her mother, at fourteen years old, will soon no longer be permitted to only be a servant in the bawdyhouse, housekeeping, running minor errands and the . Disgustingly, and predictably, the time has come for her to be a courtesan as well, whether she wants to or not.  

"Her future had been in plain sight all along, her prospects no better than the other whores' daughters born comely enough for the house. Tomorrow she would have cream for her oatmeal, to fill out her coltish frame. She would no longer wash dishes or scrub soiled linen. By the time the new gown had been made to measure, her chapped hands would be soft, and her lips would be painted. She would be presented as the new virgin jewel, and the clients would do more than wink." 

But Meiglin's mother plans to rescue her daughter from a doomed existence as a prostitute. Meiglin's mother has concealed Meiglin's true heritage, in order to protect her. For although Townborn, Meiglin has grown up believing she's the product of her mother's coupling with a random client. That is not the truth. 

In reality, Meiglin is the legitimate heir, conceived in wedlock of her mother to a Clanborn lord, Egan s'Deineval. Her lineage would get her killed, had people known. This is due to the recent uprising against the High Kings, and their feal clanborn vassals. Since the revolt, a heavy bounty lying on the heads of the Clanborn, courtesy of the town mayors, who inspire bands of cutthroats to assassinate the Clanborn. 

But now the time has come for Meiglin to display the fortitude and resourcefulness of the clanborn, and flee out into the unknown, before she can be either marked for death by those hunting the clanborn, or initiated into a life of prostitution. How will Meiglin survive, in the cold, with just the clothes on her back, no friends, family, or money to speak of, in danger due to her bloodline, that she knew nothing about until that day? 

As the Mistwraith begins to cast its inevitable shadow over the land, a young woman, haunted by prophetic dreams, will fight for survival, and play a role in world events beyond what she could ever have imagined.

Who could help but cheer and feel anguish for the fate of a teenage girl, bereft of kin and any material possessions, cast out into the world, the potential target of assassins, trying to abscond from the terrible fate that would condemn her to exploitation, and despair? Meiglin is a protagonist that anyone can care about. Her pluck, empathy, bravery in the face of dread, will pull at the reader's heartstrings. 

Secondary characters such as Tawbas, were  very well-drawn, and the appearance of the rivalry sorcery groups, the Fellowship and the Koriathain, brings some surprising and somewhat sinister connotations and outcomes.

Virtuoso writer Wurts is extremely adroit at packing a lot of worldbuilding and detail in just a few pages. The author paints the bleak picture of a land gripped by somewhat lawlessness, internal squabbling, rumour, confusion, and disruption in the chaos of the Mistwraith's incursion, while noble forces fighting to resist the geas, are pitifully cut down. Yet in all of that, gleams flickers of hope, for future generations born to restore order, and fight back effectively against the Mistwraith.

As the Mistwraith snatches the natural light of the sky, in the impending darkness, there is a valiant resistance by human kind, even as the powerful Paravians, such as the unicorns and their centaur guardians, begin to fall, and vanish from the lands inhabited by mortals.

In terms of themes, besides the horrors of child and adult exploitation, a view of the deep-seeded and complicated division between the human factions in this time of strife, internally, and against the Mistwraith, is provided. Romance, passion, love, loss, prognostication, and destiny, are also important themes in the book. 

With her usual consummate storytelling skill, dexterous, beautiful, enchanting prose that raises the standard for writing fantasy to the highest bar, Wurts provides a powerful, intense, and haunting short story that serves as an excellent companion, or introduction, for the immense world she has created for her "Wars of Light and Shadow" series.  

"Child of Prophecy" is appropriate for novice readers to the "War of Light and Shadow" series. Reading this short fiction will give a peak into the writer's definitive and superlative authorial voice, otherworldly delicious prose, and hint at the enormity and depth of the main series. 

Highly recommended.4 s Helen923 2

This sort makes me want to reread the series.1 Yasser Ahmed42 10

A novella in Janny Wurts' Wars of Light & Shadow, it follows a girl who finds out a secret regarding her father and has to leave the city in order to stay safe. That's pretty much all I can describe because it's pretty much all I understood.

Not in a bad way, I was completely overwhelmed by all the detail packed into the ~20 pages. There's some creepy cabal of powerful witches, a mistwraith consuming the natural light, historical clansmen who are despised, unicorns with centaur guardians, Sorcerers, prophetic dreams and many words with apostrophes.

It's refreshing to not be spoon-fed exposition and slowly be introduced to the world's many facets. I was happily confused throughout which may have been tiresome for a novel but worked in this story's favour.

I don't know if it's the type of introduction to a series that everyone s but it worked for me; I'm curious to read more. Michelle583 36

This is another short story set in the Wars of Light and Shadow series. It's somewhere between 25 and 30 pages, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't pack a serious punch.

The events take place during the mistwraith's initial incursion. The land is being inexorably swallowed up by the mist, but there are still a few areas free of the oppression. The story follows along with a young teenager named Meiglin. She's only fourteen, has had a very hard life, and I really felt a lot of sympathy for her. I won't give a detailed story analysis in order to avoid spoilers, (especially the grandmother of all spoilers!), for the main series. I'll just say that I had two, count 'em TWO, significant A-Ha! moments. I always wondered about that...

I don't care if this author wrote just two paragraphs; they would still be excellently written and well worth reading.

fantasy6 s Amarinske621 13

Really nice piece of insight into the world at the moment the Mistwraith starts to take over. I had been wondering about that.
I'm curious how much of that child will return later in the books. I don't think I've seen it yet, but I might just not have known at the time.4-star adult english ...more Tnkw01406 18

A lot of beautiful writing in a nice little short story. I really enjoyed it. I actually wish it had been longer. Karen167 22

Beautifully written intro to Athera and some of the political situation 500 years before the events of The Curse of the Mistwraith. read-in-2015 short-stories Jen323 5

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