Moving right along, this is the fourth book in the Young Wizards series (you know the drill, there’s the first book, second book, third book, and this is my post on the fourth). This one always felt like a break from the earlier three to me, even when I was younger. It’s Nita’s first time on her own, in a different country, and it’s now openly dealing with romance. Not even I could have missed that when I was younger.
The book starts with Nita’s parents sending her to Ireland to stay with her aunt, arguing that she needs some time away from Kit to be a kid and things like that. Nita’s annoyed, but leaves. Once she gets to Ireland, strange things start happening, things like mythological creatures from the past coming back to the present. The source of this is that magic is hanging around longer than it should, ideally magical energy dissipates in a few days, but here is has been sticking around forever. She goes to find other wizards and see what information they have for her. In the process, she learns that Ronan, a boy in town she met and found attractive, is a wizard as well. He introduces her to the rest of the community, and Nita learns that her aunt (Aunt Annie) is a wizard too! They get everyone together and decide that they have to reenact a battle from ancient Ireland in order to reset the magical overlays.
To do this, they need four weapons, the cup (water), stone (earth), sword (air), and spear (fire). Not the exact weapons from ancient history, but weapons imbued with the spirit of the originals. They find the first three relatively easily, but Nita has to call Dairine in to get molten metal from the heart of a star for the final one. To smelt it, Nita and Kit (Kit started sneaking over to Ireland pretty early on) learn that the town blacksmith is a Power who couldn’t bear to leave (it’s implied she’s a vulture later on). So she smelts it into a spear, and Ronan, who has some of the spirit of the Power that used to be in Peach from the last book, begins to carry it. They cross over into another plane for the battle, and almost immediately there are attacks and deaths. The wizards make it down, and just when all seems lost, Ronan throws the spear into the Lone Power’s eye and they all go home.
Alright so even rereading this, there is so much to keep track of. There’s whole segments of Irish history in here, and even now I mostly skimmed those and didn’t think about it too hard. You get the details that you need anyways. I bet that I could go through and actually learn a lot about Irish history and mythology if I actually dove into it, it’s that detailed.
There’s also the romance, which I skipped over in the plot summary. Essentially, Nita and Ronan kiss and that’s how Nita realizes that he has part of a Power in him. It doesn’t lead to much, so I don’t find it super necessary, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It doesn’t take over the plot, and it does add to Nita’s experience being on her own and meeting someone. Just the right balance for me, personally.
We also get introduced to a cat bard in this book. I haven’t read the cat wizard series from Duane, but I bet that she follows up on these characters. Which is great because they are very cute, and since the series is already pretty non-human-centric, might as well!
Having said that, so much of the book is about how you can be surrounded by members of your own species and feel the most alone you’ve ever felt. I think it really hits something key to traveling, or even just growing up. You feel out of place and alone and uncomfortable when you are somewhere that you don’t have roots or a connection to. Similarly to Nita, I spent a semester abroad in Scotland. So I could still understand the language (mostly) but I felt so lonely while I was there. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast, but the profound sense of detachment I sure still remember.
It really does feel like the books get more mature at this
point. Plenty of characters die here (all unnamed, but still) and after this
the series for sure gets a little more dark. I am excited to keep going though!
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