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mana:
Every thing contains mana. Mana is a mystical energy wizards can "tap" (=manipulate or use).
to shift:
to teleport, a kind of conjuring;
wizards:
Wizards have the ability to conjure things from one place to another. When wizards can touch things they can "tag" them. Wizards can summon things they tagged someday.
the helmet, the brain:
Ancient and powerful artifact. Created by some wizards in Lat-Nam. Can tag wizards and make them obedient.
Characters:
Gull, the Woodcutter:
His and his sister Greensleeves' village was destroyed during an wizardly duel. Gull had nothing but grief from wizards. That's why he hates magic and fights against it. Gull is the husband of Lily. He is clumsy, quite stupid but nice and understanding.
Greensleeves:
Has been a simpleton because the magic of the Wispering Woods, her home, overpowered her mind. When she and her brother left the woods the first time she began to think clearly. She is now a powerful druid.
Lily, the White:
She is an unschooled wizard. Lily has been a prostitute. She is the wife of Gull, the Woodcutter and mother of Hyacinth, her and Gulls daughter.
Chaney:
An old archdruid that manipulated mana to keep herself alive as long as Greensleeves needed her. She died.
Story:
Greensleeves, who became a highly skilled wizard, and her brother Gull still fight against wizards, whom they defeat and tag with the ancient helmet of Lat-Nam. But Greensleeves hates all the fighting because it's not in her nature and as a druid she tries to keep the balance between the things. She doesn't want so much responsibilities.
Lily, who married Gull, is pregnant.
The army built a village in the trees of the Wispering Woods, their new base. Chaney returned after her death as a shade. So Greensleeves can ask her sometimes for advice althougt Greensleeves often can't understand the meaning of Chaneys words. Especially when the dead druid tells her something about the "final sacrifice".
The controlled wizards can find each other because the helmet links them. They unite because they have two things in common: their magic and their hatred. The wizards who joined forces to stop Gulls army are: Dacian, the Red who is always drunk. The gorgeous Fabia, who only accepts perfect humans. Dwen of the White Isle, who masters the seas. Immugio, an ogre-giant, who isn't accepted by his tribe.Thunderhead the Goblin Queen. Gurias, who claims to be of Tolaria, though he has never visited that place. Ludoc, a mountain wizard. And Leechnip the troll. Everyone fought Gull and Greensleeves and lost. They were put on the helmet and are controlled by Greensleeves. But they united with two "free" wizards too, who fought their common enemy but were not put on the artifact: Towser and Karli of the Singing Moon. Towser gives the controlled wizards pentacles which prevent that the wizards are shifted by Greensleeves.
A lot of volunteers joined the army and it is bigger than ever before. But they still have problems because they noticed that there are too much controlled wizards for Greensleeves to track and check. They have to find out that Greensleeves can't summon the wizards because of some binding spell: the spell of the pentacles, when they are suddenly under attack. The vile wizards attack from three sides so for the first time the army has to split forces. Because Greensleeves blames herself for this problem she fights hard to help the army although she can't stand fighting.
On one of the fronts a Keldon warlord, who can inspire others to fight as well as he does and can make any troops become fanatic suicides, leads the enemy troops. The Warlord nearly kills Gull but Greensleeves helps her brother.
Greensleeves is on the horns of a dilemma because she wants to help the army and prevent that so many friends die but the principles of the druids are not to disturb the balance. The army of the defenders is overrun and the evil wizards destroy their camp in the Whispering Woods. Greensleeves, who is angry because a lot of friends died because of love and loyalty, kills Gurias and a lot of other enemies. But the wizards escape her rage.
After the battle they decide to move on because it's not safe in the forest anymore and because they are hurting the forest.
Greensleeves remembers that when she once put on the helmet, she could look into the minds of the wizards who created it. So she puts the helmet on and tries to look into the minds of the wizards: It works! She sees that the wizards couldn't finish the helmet. They intended to make the helmet not just controlling wizards but stopping them entirely.
Greensleeves suspects that the secret of the helmet is buried in the ruins of Lat-Nam, the place the helmet was created but noone knows where Lat-Nam is situated. So she wanders with a little party to the high mountains where the minotaurs live, whose origins go back far and who know all the histories. They show Greensleeves where Lat-Nam lies.
So Greensleeves shifts the army to Lat-Nam, a poisoned land that suffers from an immense devastation. They have to arrange with the peoples who protect Lat-Nam: angels and merfolk. Then they begin to dig out the ruins of the poisoned land. They find tunnels full of traps but not the secret Greensleeves is looking for. Then they realize that the secret might have sank to the seabed and might be lost forever.
Then Greensleeves is brought to the seabed and shown the secret. When she returns to the surface of the sea she realizes that the evil wizards attacked the new-built camp. The army fights a desperate fight. Because Gull thinks that everyone who fights will die he wants the people shifted away. But not a single child wants to run away so they face the end together. They sacrifice for the cause because they accepted the idea of the crusade. They fight day and night. But the exhausted defenders can no longer stem the flood of enemies.
When the vile wizards offer them to sign the terms of surrender they refuse. But Gull has a proposal: He challanges the Warlord to personal combat because he suspects him to be his long lost brother. And his plan works as his brother drops his sword after Gull talked to him.
In rage Towser orders the two to be killed. Greensleeves, who didn't realize that her two brothers survived, for the first time in her live wants to kill someone. In a flash she understands the meaning of "final sacrifice": She has to be willing to sacrifice her principles.
Now she uses all her power to stop the wizards. But during the fight she gets drunk with mana and mad with power. But the love of her brothers and the love of Kwam, her lover can stop her.
After the fight she heals the poisoned land. The wizards who are still alive are caught. So love and sacrifice triumphed over selfishness. As a pledge the wizards have to swear not to cause any harm again.
I liked this book but I especially liked the idea of the final sacrifice. What sacrifice can be harder than the sacrifice of the own principles? I was surprised that I liked the end of the book because I often dislike happy-ends and from my point of view happy-ends are often unrealistic. But I think I got very used to the characters in the book I would have hardly accepted if they would have died in the end.
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