Queens Own Author:Mercedes Lackey Book club edition includes 3 books "Arrows of the Queen", Arrow's Flight" and Arrow's Fall". — Raised in the borderlands of Valdemar, 13 year old Talia knew little about the world beyond her father's farm. But with her love of reading - a man's priviledge, considered mere frivolity for females - the girl found temporary escape from the dreariness... more » of her life. And in stolen moments, lost in the spell of forbidden books, she dreamed ...of the valient, white clad Heralds and their wondrous Companions who served the Queen and the Kingdom. Then came the day that her father's firstwife announced it was time for Talia to either marry or enter the service of the Goddess. Both futures filled the girl with dread, but her wishes meant nothing to the elders. Desperate to get away, Talia fled to a cave that had often been her secret refuge in the past. Wrapped in misery, fearful of discovery, she'd almost resigned herself to returning home to face whatever fate her father decreed wen she heard the sound of hooves and gentle bridle bells outside. It was no searcher on hrseback; Talia knew from the tales she'd read that only a Herald's Companion wore such tack. Still she was unprepared for the sheer magnificence of the creature that gazed at her with eyes of deep sapphire blue. "I choose you. Out of all the world, out of all the seeking, I have found you..." It was a feeling more than words, radiating from the Companion, and it filled Talia with a joyous sense of love and joining. In that moment, she was unaware of what it truly meant to be Chosen, but her greatest dream was coming true. She was about to join training as a Herald--and not just any Herald, but the Queen's Own...the one person the Monarch would be able to turn to, and trust, as Valdemar faced a dangerous uncertain future.« less