This is one of my favorites of the Darkover books. Perhaps, in part because it is character-driven and I find Romilly a particularly appealing character. The rest of the Darkover setting is in and around the story, but the reader is with Romilly all the way through - no shifting from one character or center of action to another. Not that Romilly hangs around any one place for long.
Like so many fantasy heroines, Romilly runs away from home to escape marriage. Her psi gift is handling animals and, after some fairly desperate adventures, she is welcomed by one of the armies contending for the throne. She trains and manages the large carrion birds which perform arial reconnaisance, and she trains war horses for the army. She comes close to losing her sanity and her life when she is unable to deal with the deaths of these creatures with which she shares rapport.
Throughout runs the thread of her relationship with a great hawk which she trained and with which she has a psychic bond. Romilly frees the hawk when her father takes it from her to give to her brother, but the hawk, Preciosa, never completely abandons her. Preciosa saves her sanity in the end and allows her to return to use her gift to rescue a man who had befriended her and has been taken as a hostage.
Rather than leap to the obvious romantic conclusion of the story, Bradley has Romilly take charge of her own life and go to a tower to learn to use and control her gift putting the possibility of marriage on hold until she has learned who she is and what she wants. Rather stylish.
And a deep sigh of relief - I can still speak up for Bradley - as long as I avoid her "historical" fantasies. Although I suppose that someday I am going to have to read The Mists of Avalon because that was one of my younger daughter's all time favorites.
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