Rifkind's Challenge (Rifkind, No. 3)

In a desert world ruled by men, Rifkind has always been one apart. A chieftain's daughter, she learned to wield a sword while all other women were bound by tribal custom to children and the cooking fire. But when her clan was massacred, she set forth on a quest for her destiny in savage lands ruled by magic and the sword.

For a while she had thought that she had found a home. She practiced the healing arts and raised her son.

But now she has once again heard a personal call to arms, a call to leave behind the safety of her home. She will once again take up the way of the sword, the way of sorcery. And this time she is not alone.

Lynn Abbey lives in Leesburg, Florida.  She and her ex-husband created Thieves' World over twenty years ago, where it launched the shared world anthology subgenre.