At one time Eldarn was five separate kingdoms, four of which were ruled by members of an extended family and the fifth by a collective of wizards known as the Larion Senate. It was through the latter that evil came into the world, when one of their number, Nerek, went too far in his search for power and opened himself up for possession in exchange.
After wiping out all but two of his colleagues he proceeded to eliminate everyone with any legitimate claim to a throne anywhere in Eldarn (he believed), save for the one he possessed, thus always preserving the illusion of proper succession. Once his control was complete, he took the source of his power, an inconsequential-looking piece of rock called Lessek's Key. It controlled the spell table built by Lessek, founder of the Senate, and one of two portals for crossing the boundaries between worlds, to the Colorado of the 1800s, where he secreted them in a safety deposit. This was at the very bank that Steven Taylor would work at in the 21st century.
In Lessek's Key we pick up the action where we left off at the end of The Hickory Staff. Stephen has headed back to Colorado to retrieve the portal and key, which had been left in his and Mark's apartment. Mark and the rest of their companions, Garec and Gilmour (one of the surviving Larion Senators), attempt to recover from their fight with Nerek and place themselves in position to open the second portal to allow Steven a point of return. (To ensure you end up where you want to, both portals have to be open, otherwise you end up in a random spot, which is how Hannah landed in a separate part of the world from Steven and Mark)
For her part, Hannah, through Hoyt and Churn, who rescued her in book one, had managed to meet up with the other survivor of Nerek's destruction of the Larion Senate, Kantu. (Something to keep in mind, there are no coincidences in Eldarn.) Kantu has agreed to try to help Hannah get back to Colorado, but in order to do so he thinks they have to break into Nerek's palace to retrieve the one portal remaining on Eldarn.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
2 - margaret cole
Hi,
Just by chance at our store in England "Borders" I chanced to read the first copy "The Hickory Staff" and could not put the book down - the second sequal - just as good - I am looking forward to the 3rd "Eldarn" sequence and very much hope it will be out very soon. Thank you for the good read and enjoyable books.
Maggie Cole 24th November 07
3 - Steven Vale
I picked up Hickory Staff as a desperation read, there was nothing else for me to read in the store, and I was amazed that I had found a complete gem of a book. I haven't been able to put it down (which did result in me missing a day of labs, whoops). I've just managed to lay my hands on the the 2nd book and am thoroughly looking forward to to reading it and the third (which I just found was out yay!!!!)