COMPANIONS ON THE ROAD: Two Novellas

These stories appeared in England as two separate works for young adults, and might well have been dealt with in the same way by the American publisher. They are innocuous, well-told fantasies set in an indefinite past. In Companions on the Road, a young mercenary officer and two covetous accomplices steal a treasure from the ruins of a sacked citadel known as a stronghold of sorcery. Supernatural pursuers overtake them one by one in sleep, until the young captain is unexpectedly helped to relinquish the evil treasure and confront the ghostly stalkers. The Winter Players is a little more intricate: a young priestess seeking a relic stolen from her shrine pits her power against that of a cruel sorcerer, leaps across the boundaries of time into a remoter past, and must choose to set or not to set the whole paradoxical chain of events in motion again. Both stories are written with gentle control and poise; characterizations are rather discreet but the fantasy-landscapes are vividly imagined. Still, it is no service to either tale to present it in the adult category.