The 1999 edition of the Legend anthology contains a collection of 6 tales : The Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King,
Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind, Grinning Man by Orson Scott Card, The Seventh Shrine by Robert Silverberg, Dragonfly by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Wood Boy by Raymond E. Feist.
The Sisters of Eluria is set in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Not long after Roland of Gilead arrives in the deserted town of Eluria, he is ambushed and seized by mutants. He awakens later in the hospital of the Sisters of Eluria and finds himself trapped there. Roland finally escapes from his vampiric jailers with the help of Jenna, youngest of the sisters. The next day Jenna, damned by her betrayal of her own kind, disappears.
Debt of Bones tells a tale of First Wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander from Terry Goodkind’s
Sword of Truth series. In it, Abigail of Coney Crossing demands Zedd’s help in rescuing her village as repayment of a family debt. Zedd agrees knowing it is a trap. He has laid a trap of his own and his would-be assassin is killed instead. Although Zedd grants Abby till dawn to rescue her family, Abby fails to find them. In the end, Abby realizes she cannot sacrifice others to D’Hara tyranny in exchange for her family’s lives and gives her blessing for Zedd to continue his magical assault on the D’Hara.
In Grinning Man,
Alvin Maker and his apprentice Arthur Stuart stumbles across Davy Crockett in a grinning contest with a grizzly bear. Crockett wins and leaves unknowing that Alvin has secretly interchanged a part of Crockett and the bear’s nature. When Crockett meets the bear in another grinning challenge at a later date, he finds himself the loser and in a strange twist, is now servant to the bear. At the same time, Alvin and Arthur teaches Rack Miller lessons in honesty when they discover he has been cheating his customers for years.
The Pontifex of Majipoor, Lord Valentine travels to an archeological site to unravel a murder mystery in The Seventh Shrine. He finds that the shapeshifter co-leader of the archeologists, Dr Huukaminaan was brutally dismembered to prevent his opening of the seventh shrine, considered to be sacred by other shapeshifters or Metamorphs. Lord Valentine directs that Torkinuuminaad, the priest of the Metamorphs who had ordered the killing, be judged by the Metamorph Queen and the shrine sealed to prevent further unrest.
Dragonfly of Iria is a girl of mysterious strength in search of her true name and nature in the world of Earthsea. Dragonfly travels to Roke where she hopes to discover who she is but is rejected as the Rule of Roke does not allow the teaching of women. At the end of the tale, Dragonfly finds that she is a dragon and leaves to learn her true name from her own kind.
Dirk, The Wood Boy recounts to the Duke of Crydee how he came to be in possession of his master, Lord Paul’s treasures and the dead bodies of Lord Paul’s daughter and bodyguard, Anika and Drogen. His master had surrendered to the Tsurani near the beginning of the Riftwar and they had been living as Tsurani slaves or prisoners for some time. One morning, Dirk awakened to find the other prisoners massacred and Anika and Drogen gone. Suspecting Drogen of kidnapping Anika and stealing his master’s treasure, Dirk escaped from the Tsurani and tracked Drogen down. Anika accidentally fell on the same knife Dirk used to kill Drogen.
Overall, I found Debt of Bones to be the best of the collection as at the end of the tale, I found myself wanting to read more of the First Wizard and the world the Sword of Truth series is set in.