Owlflight

Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey is the first novel in a new trilogy in her Valdemar/ Velgarth universe. Set in the years after the Mage Storms series it concentrates on an unhappy young orphan named Darian being brought up in a secluded village by the local mage after his parent's death.

Plot summary

Darian, the black sheep of his village, is blamed for every misdemeanour of the village children. The villagers, who feared the woods they were surrounded by, were afraid his parents' trips into the woods would bring death to them in the form of a monster formed by the Mage Storms. When his parents died and on the verge of being abandoned, Darin is apprenticed to the village hedge wizard - Justyn. However, this makes Darian unhappy and the villages feel he is ungrateful causing them to be hostile.

The mage tries his best, though he's not very good with children. Darian just doesn't want to learn to use the magical ability inside him. Then one day the village is unexpectedly attacked by barbarians from the north - the Bear Clan - who take over the village. In the fight Justyn is killed and Darian flees. During his flight Darian is almost caught by two of the barbarians chasing him when he is unexpectedly rescued by a Hawkbrother scout called Snowfire, who has some magic of his own.

Snowfire takes Darian back to the temporary camp where they set out to find out what happened, However, Darian is very upset with the realisation that Justyn only ever tried to help him – even when Darian was outrageously rude. Mixed with suppressed feelings for his parents who he believes are not dead and distaste for the villagers, Snowfire, along with the mages Starfall & Nightwind and the gryphon Kel, they gradually help him come to terms with his Justyn’s death and the attack on the village.

Darian is adopted by the Hawkbrothers and becomes Snowfire’s little brother. However, he cannot leave the villagers to their fate as slaves—even if they have treated him wrongly in the past. He helps the Hawkbrothers infiltrate the village and attack and drive out the Bear Clan. In the process Darian almost gets killed by their Shaman but kills him instead.

In the end Darian is faced with either staying with the villagers as their mage or going off with the Hawkbrothers. In the end he compromises—he will travel with the Hawkbrothers for a few years to learn magic and then return as the village mage. Pleased with Darian's maturity, Snowfire gives Darian his bond bird, a fledgling owl named Kuari.