The wizard calls his demons, the sky above turns black! The demons strike at Vanyel, he stands and holds them back! The demons strike at Vanyel, they strike and hurt him sore, but! Vanyel stands defiantly to raise his hands once more!

They sky itself descends now, upon bare Stoney Tor, it hides the awful battle, the watchers see no more! The wizard shouts in triumph, too soon he vents his mirth! For Vanyel calls the lightening down and smites him to the earth!

The clouds of black have lifted; and there on barren ground stands Vanyel hurt, yet victor, the demons tied and bound! He looks down on Lord Nedran; his eyes grow cold and bleak-- "Now shall I give you, Nedran, all the power that you seek--!"

Now Vanyel frees the demons, and Nedran screams with fear! He sets them on the Karsites, who had first brought them here, he sets them on the Karsites, and on the Karsite land! They look down on Lord Nedran and they do not stay their hand!

Now Vanyel calls the farmers, "Go tell you near and far! How thus are served the tyrants who would take Valdemar! I am the bane of demons, their quarry I defend. Thus Heralds serve a foeman-- and thus Heralds save a friend!"
© Mercedes Lackey, sung by Heather Alexander.

I finished! PLEASE FULL VIEW. The details I worked so hard on are lost otherwise!

I feel wonderful about this piece. There's nothing like some classic fantasy illustration to make someone happy. I had been wanting to do something dedicated to one of my favorite book series, The Last Herald-Mage by M. Lackey, since the first picture I did two years was absolutely awful. I feel like I really did the books justice, that's just me though. Heh. I wanted to portray Vanyel in a somewhat different way, most illustrations I've seen of him have to do with his awful troubled life or with one of his lovers. But I thought that the most important part of Vanyel was being missed - above all else, he was a Herald, sworn to the protection of Valdemar at any cost to himself. I was also inspired to do an action scene when I noticed I had NONE in any of my online galleries I haven't done action scenes in forever.

Also, this is done in ACRYLICS, which I have not posted one of my acrylic paintings in almost five years. I've sure done plenty, but most are pretty huge and I was never very confident in my photo skills. This one is about 10" x 13.5". I just felt like using them for once, I've been spoiled by watercolors! And I was inspired by Jody Lee's illustrations.

I tried to make the demons look a little more disgusting rather than terrifying - in MY mind I succeeded -- I always imagined Lackey's concept of demons as hideous distorted freak creatures from the other Plane, like changecreatures I guess.

Alright, enough ranting from me. any kind of feedback is really appreciated! Thank you. Vanyel & story things belong to Mercedes Lackey. The art belongs to me.