Gryphon in Glory

 

By Andre Norton

A Witch World story

A continuation of the story told in The Crystal Gryphon  in which Joisan and Kerovan once again go their separate ways only to come back together later on in the story.

Kerovan is still feeling inferior and decides to set Joisan free so she can find love with a "normal" person. But Joisan is stubbornly refusing to accept his rejection of her and set off after him when he leaves on a military mission, determined to join him despite his refusal. Kerovan is traveling to the Waste, in search of allies in the war against the invaders from overseas. He is successful in his quest, finding a race of shapeshiftering warriors who are alarmed to discover that the enemy is seeking forbidden knowledge in the Waste.

Meanwhile Joisan has set out to follow Kerovan and she has fallen in with two strangers, Elys and Jervon. Elys and Jervon first appeared in the novella, Dragon Scale Silver. While traveling in the Waste, Joisan gets kidnapped by the Thas, monstrous underground rat-men She frees herself by using the power of the crystal gryphon, which was given to her by Kerovan at the start of the first book. 

But when she manages to find her way to the surface, she comes out nowhere near where she last saw Elys and Jervon. She finds an abandoned castle in which she can shelter and there are even some fruits to eat in the old orchard. She climbs the castle tower and sees a road off in the distance and shortly discovers Kerovan and Elys and Jervon traveling on the road. Kerovan is still struggling to find self-acceptance and continues to turn away from Joisan. He has been having strange dreams and they are both experiencing strange visions. He has given up on his original quest and is now concentrating on sorting himself out and Joisan is just hoping that eventually he will realize he is the only man for her.

This was an OK story. Pretty much follows the same pattern of one or two young people on a quest of discovery and self-discovery, always involving evil magic and good magic and often featuring magical animals and people who have magical abilities but are not trained to use them. 

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