Book review
“I’ll prove to you I’m the best fiddler these parts have ever seen, and too good for the likes of you! I’ll go fiddle for the Skull Hill Ghost!”Pressed beyond endurance by the censure and bullying of the people in town, 14-year-old Rune makes that rash promise. And it is a rash promise-no one has been left alive by that ghost. Even the priest who went to exorcize the ghost ended up dead. But Rune is determined not to go back on her word.
Somehow Rune makes it through the night without being killed. She realizes that no one will believe her if she went back. The ghost had given her a reward, enough for her to leave the small town of Westhaven and head for the Midsummer Faire. For at the Midsummer Faire is where the auditions for Guild Bard were.
First though, Rune has to find a teacher. For while Rune knows how to play music, she does not know how to read or write it. And one of the requirements for the audition is that the participants write one song, be able to play more than one instrument. Rune’s only instrument is her fiddle, and even the ghost’s reward isn’t quite enough to buy another instrument.
Once Rune has learned all she must, there is one more hurdle to jump: the Guild Bards only except men into their ranks! What will Rune do now?
Mercedes Lackey’s “The Lark and the Wren “is a well-written story. It shows that nothing is impossible if you refuse to give up.
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