The Wind-Witch (Warhorse of Esdragon, #2)

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The Wind-Witch (Warhorse of Esdragon #2)

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 102 ratings · 8 reviews

Book Two of "The Warhorse of Esdragon"
Faithful wife to a small landholder, Druyan had lived her life in other people's shadows. And if she could sometimes hold the clouds at bay or whistle up a wind, Druyan made sure to keep that talent to herself. Then war came, and Druyan found herself a widow, with no one to help during the harvest but Kellis, the wounded prisoner her h...more

Mass Market Paperback, 335 pages

Published October 1st 1994 by Del Rey

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May 03, 2012 Melissa Cuevas rated it 2 of 5 stars

Well, after the first one, I asked myself if I was even going to bother, but since someone had bought me both of these and I needed something to read in the bathtub, I did.

First off, this one is much more tolerable than the Prince of Ill Luck. I'll start with the pluses and work my way down to the minuses. Druyan (female protagonist) is a pretty solid plus. Unlike her predecessor in 'Prince', I never found myself wondering why she hadn't been drowned in the toilet as a child. She's a pretty ste...more Well, after the first one, I asked myself if I was even going to bother, but since someone had bought me both of these and I needed something to read in the bathtub, I did.

First off, this one is much more tolerable than the Prince of Ill Luck. I'll start with the pluses and work my way down to the minuses. Druyan (female protagonist) is a pretty solid plus. Unlike her predecessor in 'Prince', I never found myself wondering why she hadn't been drowned in the toilet as a child. She's a pretty steady, level headed sort of fantasy heroine, and I can handle that.

And to the minuses... her male counterpart, Kellis. Like his predecessor Leith in Prince, he is a foundling, Leith was shipwrecked and Kellis has been captured. This is necessary to set up the perfect dependent male dynamic that the author seems to get off on. Also like Leith, Kellis spends an inordinate amount of time concussed into a haze. This was adequately explained with Leith, who is supposedly cursed, but serves no other purpose in this one but to render Kellis even more hopeless, helpless and hapless. This plot hole, repeated throughout both works, gives the author a chance to keep them both firmly under leash, an opportunity to describe their 'swellings' and 'clottings' and gives the reader some faint hope that they're both actually good guys suffering from repeated traumatic brain injuries.

Kellis has been captured by Druyan's husband, and locked into a root cellar with four of his 'compatriots'. It takes Dru four or five days to remember that they're there (we can forgive her, nobody left her in charge of the kennel, and she's had a bad week.) She remembers that they're there when she desperately needs slave labor. (Ooookay, I get the concept but the implementation seems a little weak here.) So she goes to get them out, guessing that she, two dogs, two young shepherdesses, a teenaged boy, and a crippled housekeeper can keep five violent raiders in check. Luckily for her, when she opens the root cellar she discovers that four of them have escaped (without causing any chaos, mayhem, damage or theft, how convenient.) leaving only the badly concussed (!) Kellis. She prods him out of unconsciousness and informs him that he's going to work off his debt. He goes along with this (traumatic brain injury + lack of concrete intelligence about what there is to keep him well behaved, okay) and he is put to work straight out of concussion and a few days locked in a root cellar. (He is the enemy, gotcha.) Turns out Kellis has a racial allergy to iron (damn farming implements) + concussion + few days locked in cellar gives us one of Dexter's heroes at their finest; a long suffering unto the point of sheer pathetic male who conveniently passes out the moment the work is done and requires yet more tending by the female. Why doesn't he just...I don't know...leave? The more I found out about him as the book goes on, the more I just don't swallow why he didn't just walk off. Apparently he is so insipid that the promise he made under duress (and concussion!) to be a slave is enough to keep him around to be pathetic and abused.

And yeah. One final thought. I understand not going into grotesque and pornographic detail when your characters have sexual relations but...please...don't dance around it so badly that I have to go back to try and figure out if and when it happened. (less)

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Apr 16, 2010 Angie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: belovedbookshelf, nostalgireads

I enjoyed The Prince of Ill Luck--the first book in The Warhorse of Esdragon trilogy immensely. Even better, the second book--THE WIND-WITCH--was already out at the time and, when I went back to purchase it, I was surprised to find that it took place several generations later in the same country and the characters from the first tale were the stuff of almost legend in their country now. Many years had passed since Leith followed his princess through hell and high water to make her honor her word...more I enjoyed The Prince of Ill Luck--the first book in The Warhorse of Esdragon trilogy immensely. Even better, the second book--THE WIND-WITCH--was already out at the time and, when I went back to purchase it, I was surprised to find that it took place several generations later in the same country and the characters from the first tale were the stuff of almost legend in their country now. Many years had passed since Leith followed his princess through hell and high water to make her honor her word to break his curse, and this second book followed a very different heroine. Though the black warhorse Valadin was there having seemingly not aged a day and that made me feel good and like everything would be all right. It's always hard to let go of those characters and friendships that first captured your attention. But, in this case, Susan Dexter's choice was a good one and THE WIND-WITCH is actually my favorite of the three books in the trilogy. Though they are all excellent, this one is the one I re-read regularly. First published in 1994, this series, as is so often the case with these great under-the-radar fantasy titles, this series is now out of print. But used copies are available very inexpensively.

Druyan has just buried her husband. And she's not exactly the picture of a grieving widow, though she does find herself at quite a few loose ends. It was an arranged marriage and, though he was much older than she and they had little in common, she finds she misses the company and what conversation they shared. Much of this is swallowed up, though, by her realization that her farm, her land, the only place she's ever felt truly at home will assuredly be taken from her if she cannot hold the farm and keep it producing for a year and a day from the moment her husband Travic died. And so, with a stubborn sense of defiance and nothing but a couple of young girls and an elderly, arthritic cook by her side, Druyan sets out to defend her home and use the laws of the land to her advantage. Then, within the span of a few days, she becomes the unsuspecting owner of an unusually beautiful and mysterious black horse, and she discovers a prisoner named Kellis trussed up in the celler, where her husband must have stashed him without telling her when the sea-faring Errol invaders reached their land last fall. Druyan weighs his threat against her need and decides to force the obviously dazed foreigner into service to help bring in the harvest and, in the process, lets loose a force she has no inkling of. But Druyan herself is not precisely what she seems. And her own powers with the weather, combined with the marvelous horse and the mysterious Kellis, will all be necessary when invasion threatens Esdragon's coast once more.

Right away I could tell this book was special. I connected with Druyan immediately and her quiet, strong personality was honestly a relief after the constant stream of vitriol and fire that was Kess in the previous book. Druyan is a weaver of some skill and, at night after working her hands to the point where they're raw, she relaxes in front of the fire and weaves cloaks and blankets and scarves of wonderful color and quality and texture. I, along with Kellis (once he's allowed in the house), watched her in wonder and appreciation at this talent I have little knowledge of or experience with. She reminds me a fair bit of Sorcha in Daughter of the Forest and Claire in Garden Spells because of the determined way she pursues her goals, the way she creates something lovely from such simple ingredients, and the way she is so hesitant--almost afraid--to grasp at the few instances of beauty in her life. I liked getting to know Kellis as well, as Druyan slowly let down her guard around him. He's a disarming beta hero and about as clumsy as a bull in a china shop. He knows nothing of farming or manual labor and Druyan has to teach him everything and bite her tongue when he displays an unusual aversion to cold iron. And it's a good thing she keeps him around despite her numerous misgivings for Kellis does have one ability she does not. And it comes in handy in a most opportune moment, when it seems everything she's worked so hard for will be lost in a moment's thoughtlessness. I love this story. I love the characters and I love the not knowing up to the last page what will happen ending. THE WIND-WITCH is good, solid traditional fantasy in the vein of the early Patricia McKillip books, some of Mercedes Lackey's early stuff, and Jennifer Roberson.

Reading Order: The Prince of Ill Luck, THE WIND-WITCH, and True Knight (less)

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Jul 19, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I kind of want to give this book five stars because I love it so much more than I love my other four star books. But I'm not quite convinced it's that good... No choice for it! Must go back and recalibrate all my ratings.

OK, maybe not.

I can't remember now where I picked up The Wind-Witch. I was someplace random, I remember that, and I liked the title, but the book sat on my shelf for a while because it's the second in a series of three and, by the time I got it, I was kind of over series. But I...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Sarah Madison rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of my favorite books when I was in college. I read it before the first book in the series, and it took me a while to locate a copy of The Prince of Ill-Luck. To be honest, I preferred this story. I liked the world-building and the hard life Druyan had to carve out for herself in order to keep her farm and her independence. I loved the magic and the central character of the horse Valadan through the stories, even as the main characters change.

I thought the characters and the story more three...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Nytetyger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-challenge

This is book two in the series and again we have the semi prickly female with magic, but this time the male is also a mage who is broken in spirit as well as body. Her husband slain in the many raider raids to her homeland, Druyan decides to not tell anyone, but stead for a year and a day so that the land will be her own. She chooses to use the prisoners taken by her husband before he left to war, but only one is left—Kellis. He is the usual Sue Dexter hero, and yet, this couple work together. T...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fantasy, own, la-la-loved

Druyan has lived her life as the dutiful daughter. Marrying when she was told, putting her talents to the skills deemed 'appropriate' for women. When her husband is unexpectedly killed, Druyan finds herself on a precipice -- submit meekly once again to her uncle, the Duke's, choice of a new husband or keep her loss private and work, work, work for a year and a day proving her holding profitable and become her own master. For once, Druyan follows her heart and chooses the latter. With the help of...more Druyan has lived her life as the dutiful daughter. Marrying when she was told, putting her talents to the skills deemed 'appropriate' for women. When her husband is unexpectedly killed, Druyan finds herself on a precipice -- submit meekly once again to her uncle, the Duke's, choice of a new husband or keep her loss private and work, work, work for a year and a day proving her holding profitable and become her own master. For once, Druyan follows her heart and chooses the latter. With the help of her meager farm help, her mythical horse Valadan and the unsuspecting raider turned farmhand, Kellis, Druyan begins to make Splaine Garth her own.

But Kellis is not simply a wounded foreigner hoping to pay a blood debt by working Druyan's farm. Cursed (or blessed) with the gift of sight, Kellis begins to see warnings of raiders invading Esdragon and even as he warns his Lady not to trust the visions, she is not content to simply do nothing. Each time Kellis scrys a vision of destruction, Druyan rushes off, fleet as the wind on the back of Valadan, to warn the unsuspecting victims. But Kellis cannot find it in himself to let his Lady ride off alone, unprotected, and their headlong flights bring unwanted scrutiny when they want it the least.

Heavens above, I think I fell in love with this one wholeheartedly from the very first sentence. First of all, it's full of lovely writing with a sloooow buildup of tension that I found myself all but gripping the pages in earnest concern as Druyan hurled herself into harms way time and again. Susan Dexter is such a wonderful storyteller. Truly. Her detailed passages of daily farm life contrasted against the looming threat of war never failed to thrust me right into the moment. Each sentence seemed to be crafted with such a loving touch that I wanted to mull over each word individually and digest them slowly.

Druyan has something of the wild wind within her (as you can gather from the title) but it has been battered down so thoroughly all her life, that the gradual loosening she allows was pure magic. Her quiet determination to save her farm, her friends, even her country utterly entranced me as I was constantly awed by her courage and loyalty. Under Kellis' careful and watchful eye, she becomes a woman of her own making and I loved every minute of it. I cannot recommend this treasure heartily enough and you better believe I've got the rest of the series already queued up in the TBR pile.(less)

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Jan 29, 2011 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, horses, otherwhere

The Wind-Witch is Druyan, whose life as a farmer’s wife has been fairly ordinary aside from the small fact of her ability to whistle up a wind or redirect a storm. This ability she has kept quiet, even from her husband, magic not being terribly well looked-upon. The only other extraordinary aspect to this simple and good life is the rather small black horse Druyan discovered one day; as no one came forward to claim him, he was, by default, hers, and whatever she suspects about his extreme unique...more The Wind-Witch is Druyan, whose life as a farmer’s wife has been fairly ordinary aside from the small fact of her ability to whistle up a wind or redirect a storm. This ability she has kept quiet, even from her husband, magic not being terribly well looked-upon. The only other extraordinary aspect to this simple and good life is the rather small black horse Druyan discovered one day; as no one came forward to claim him, he was, by default, hers, and whatever she suspects about his extreme uniqueness is, again, kept to herself. It is, of course, Valadan, immortal Warhorse of Esdragon (“of course” because the book is “The Warhorse of Esdragon, Book 2″), and he is anything but ordinary.

“Ordinary” is turned upside-down when the sea raiders begin to come, killing and plundering as sea raiders always do, and the local lord calls for troops – including Druyan’s husband – to try to fend them off. In shockingly short order, Druyan is widowed, left alone with a tiny group of very young and very old female servants to try to maintain the farm – and to do something about the wounded raider, Kellis, her husband captured and locked in the root cellar just before he left. In many ways it turns out just as well that of the several raiders who were put in there only Kellis remains – the others dug their way out and left him to die. But he didn’t die, and though he might find death preferable to surviving as Druyan’s prisoner and indentured servant, he heals. Trust slowly, cautiously grows between them as she discovers that, in many more ways than one, he is not your typical raider.

This could have been the setup for a completely generic fantasy romance – but it was written by Susan Dexter, and that is not what Susan Dexter does. (Did.) The trust between the two of them is hard won, and goes little further – the elderly woman servant certainly never trusts Kellis as far as she would a rabid dog. But all he wants is to fulfill his obligation to Druyan, work out the year they agreed upon which will help her keep the farm, and then leave for parts unknown. All Druyan wants is to keep her farm and see peace return to the countryside. It’s frequently doubtful that either of them will get their wishes.

As always, Valadan is beautifully drawn. And as always, so are the humans; they evade the usual pigeonholes fantasy characters have a tendency to slot into, and give every indication that they have full and complete lives before, after, and beyond what the story tells. The story is (as always) excellently well told, with unexpected twists and turns and a perfectly satisfying ending. It’s yet another reason to mourn the lack of books by Susan Dexter over the last ten years.(less)

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Mar 22, 2012 Eve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-f

This is one of my favorite books, for its sheer storytelling. A superbly paced capture/wartime/woman-in-charge story with a little magic and a fabulous horse thrown in. (M/F)

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About Susan Dexter

Susan Dexter’s favorite subject for her books is fantasy and throughout her life has worked as a librarian, teacher, and writer.

Susan received her first award, the Merit Award, in 1976 from the Lawrence County Open Arts Show. She also received the Distinguished Award from them in 1982 and 1983. The Wizard’s Shadow was listed among the “Books for the Teen Age” in 1993 by the New York Public Librar...more

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Books by Susan Dexter

The Prince of Ill Luck (Warhorse of Esdragon, #1)

The Ring of Allaire (Winter King's War, #1)

The Sword of Calandra (Winter King's War, #2)

The True Knight (Warhorse of Esdragon, #3)

The Mountains of Channandran (Winter King's War, #3)

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The Wind-Witch (Warhorse of Esdragon #2)

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