SOLVED. Looking for fantasy series based on short story in unknown anthology. The story takes place in a world where magic is only to be wielded by males and each "mage" has a secret. [s]

[Joseph]

I read a book that had a collection of fantasy short stories back in the late 90's, I think. I remember one story and suspect it is part of a series, but can't seem to find it. I don't remember the name of the book, or the author of the story, but what I do remember I will relate now, and hope someone can help me find the story, and/or series.

The story takes place in a world where magic is only to be wielded by males and each "mage" has a secret. If another mage discovers this secret, and declares it, they may render the mage defenseless and kill him, taking his power. It is believed that at the end of the world, there will be only one mage left with all the power.

In the story, the main character is a female who disguised herself as a male and learned how to use magic. When she passed the tests, it was decided that her secret would be... her gender. If any other rival mage were to discover and declare her true gender, they would be able to kill her and take her power.

She is in a desert city and has to go in disguise for some reason. She decides to disguise herself in the garb of the local females. While disguised thus, she encounters another mage who recognizes her and believes he has discovered her secret: that she likes to dress in women's clothing. He is, of course, wrong, and she uses a very colorful epithet the locals are fond of saying, calling him a "defiler of virgin nanny goats." At this, the other mage gives pause and she looks at him and declares his secret to be that he likes to defile virgin nanny goats, and kills him taking his power.

I have no idea if this is part of, or from, a series, but if so, I would love to know what the series is, or at the very least, I would like to know what collection of short stories it came from. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Sue]

Lythande by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
"It's a long wait until the Last Battle of Law and Chaos, when the forces of Good and Evil will clash for the final time. So what's a body to do in the meantime? Lythande has to earn a living, after all. Music and magic are saleable skills--sometimes both together. There's a magic lute....

Mermaids, dragons, small children--Lythande's life is full of challenges, of which the biggest is never allowing the Secret to be revealed, on pain of total loss of magic... oh, and death."

[Joseph]

Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Kris]

Just to confirm, is Lythande by Marion Zimmer Bradley your book? (Sometimes people say thanks for taking the time to make a good suggestion.)

[Joseph]

I am confirming it is the book. After googling the title and looking around, I found a more detailed description, including the list of Novelettes included in the volume, and the story I remember is included. It's specific title is "Somebody Else's Magic." I also found Excerpts and have triple confirmed this. I've ordered "The Complete Lythande" from amazon so I can now read the entire collection.

[[deleted user]]

Pretty amazing that within 3 hours of posting you found out the name of your book and within 2 days its on its way to your house. How long have you been wondering what book it was?

Happy for you and it looks awesome.

[Joseph]

Probably about a couple years or more. I remembered an anthology that had a few good stories I suspected we're part of series. I've been catching up on ones I could find. Found the "Saga of Recluse" by searching for magic based on order and chaos. Read all the Pern series. Also read Discworld. There was also a Dragonlance story in there and Ive spent the better part of the last year or so reading it. Nearing the end and wanted to find the next one. Tried googling what I knew and the only "helpful" link it gave me (that wasn't either animal porn [searching for the remembered quote related to nanny goats], harry potter related [search for wizards and secret], or crossdressing females [search for stories where female mage is disguised as male]) was to a page about how to search for a book if you don't know the title or author which linked me to this group.