by Bill Hiatt
Equipment: White Hilt, a sword which flames when drawn by one who is worthy; dragon armor, which enhanced his musical and pyrotechnic abilities; sometimes (when someone else hadn’t stolen it) the lyre of Orpheus, which amplified his music-based magic and gave him powerful control over nature and over the human mind.
Vanora
Sent by the Order of the Ladies of the Lake in response to a distress call by Nurse Florence, Vanora helped fight Ceridwen and then assumed Ceridwen’s Carrie Winn identify after the witch’s defeat. Her relationship with Tal became stormy because of Vanora’s willingness to sacrifice people to the greater good and her belief that Tal had a monumental destiny she must help him fulfill.
Viviane Florence (Nurse Florence)
Nurse Florence was sent by the Order of Ladies of the Lake to watch over Tal in the guise of the high-school nurse. Originally keeping her identity secret even from Tal, she eventually had to reveal herself. She often provided Tal with advice as well as magical support. She recruited Dan and others as warriors and helped Tal screen other possibilities. She also obtained magical weapons from Gwynn ap Nudd, with whom the Ladies of the Lake had a privileged relationship.
Welsh and Other Celtic Supernatural Beings
The Amadan Dubh: The so-called fairy fool, his alleged madness may be at least partially an act. He tricked Tal into questing for the lyre of Orpheus so Dubh could steal it. He was eventually captured by New Dark Me, who spelled him into a coma and buried him in the sand on Alcina’s island.
Arawn: A former king of the Welsh faeries who was replaced by Gwynn ap Nudd after the theft of various magic possessions from Arawn by an expedition led by King Arthur and the original Taliesin, Arawn hated Tal because of these past events and delighted in finding ways to hinder him. Tal cannot travel directly to Annwn as a result of Arawn’s ban, which the faerie stubbornly refused to remove.
Ceridwen: A witch who brewed the potion of wisdom that gave the original Taliesin magic and some other abilities, Ceridwen sought out the reincarnated Taliesin and awakens his past life memories in order to kill him and trap his soul, thus recovering the wisdom she lost to him centuries ago. She created the Carrie Winn persona and founded Santa Brígida as a way to lure Tal’s parents to live near her in order to make her plan easier to execute. However, she waited too long after awakening Tal’s past lives to make her move. In the meantime Tal managed to master his past life magical abilities, and with the help of his friends, as well as Nurse Florence and Vanora, he defeated Ceridwen, and Vanora appropriated the Carrie Winn persona as a handy way to help Tal in the future. Tal originally thought Ceridwen had only one ally, Morgan le Fay, but evidence gradually emerged that linked Ceridwen to Nicneven, and ultimately to Hecate.
Coventina: The original Lady of the Lake who founded of the Order of the Ladies of the Lake, Coventina was once a Celtic water goddess. At one point wanted to marry Tal and make him the first Lord of the Lake. Tal, who still loved Eva, declined but promised to find a way to harness his tendency to awaken latent magic in an effort to help Coventina find more recruits to staff the diminished order.
The Dagda: Former high king of Irish faeries who pretended to be dead for centuries, the Dagda reemerged to claim the high kingship of all faeries. Even before that, he had become allied to Tal as a result of Tal’s rescue of the Dagda’s favorite granddaughter, Doirend. He was a great warrior with a club that could kill eight men in one blow, but he was also originally a fertility god associated with maintaining the natural order, which his self-playing harp helped to reinforce.
Finvarra: High king of the Irish faeries.
The Korrigan: Queen of the Breton faeries; an adversary of the original Taliesin.
Govannon: Blacksmith of the Welsh faeries; designer of many of the armor and weapons used by Tal’s warriors.
Gwynn ap Nudd: King of the Welsh faeries (Tylwyth Teg), powerful warrior, and Tal’s most reliable faerie ally.
Mab: Queen of the Connacht faeries, known for her skill with dreams.
Morgan le Fay: Half faerie, half sister to King Arthur, and sister to Alcina, Morgan searched for the reincarnated soul of Lancelot. She became convinced that Tal could help her in her quest. Later she recruited Alcina, then in control of Carla’s body, to help her capture Tal. At the beginning of this book, Morgan is a prisoner, awaiting faerie justice in Annwn.
Nicneven: Like some of the other characters, Nicneven leads a double life. Openly queen of the Scottish faeries, she is also secretly queen of Scottish witches as well, some of whom she convinced to sell their souls for greater power. She herself became a witch by pledging herself to Hecate, so Nicneven had access not only to her own wintry powers but to Hecate’s diverse magic as well. She was overthrown and is presumed dead by Tal and his warriors.
Oberon: King of the English faeries; at the beginning of this book, he was in prison, though Tal believed that the prisoner guilty of so many bad acts was not really Oberon, but someone else in disguise.
Robin Goodfellow: A loyal supporter of Oberon and Titania, for many months Robin was a prisoner in his own body as a result of a botched duplication spell that placed him under the control of Dark Me, Tal’s evil alter ego.
Tanaquill: Daughter of Oberon and Titania, Tanaquill was suspected of being an ally of Nicneven. Tanaquill became princess regent when both her parents were jailed, but the fact that she called herself queen suggested her ambition was to keep the throne.
Titania: Queen of the English faeries; at the beginning of this book, she is in prison, though Tal believed she was framed.
Olympians
General note: Olympian is the generic name used in the series for all inhabitants of the Olympian plane, whether or not they actually live on Mount Olympus. In Hidden among Yourselves, Hestia explains that God created the Olympians and other supernatural beings for specific purposes, but many, including the Olympians, ignored that purpose and set themselves up as gods. Some, like many groups of faeries, ultimately dropped their divine claims and got off with lesser penalties. Those like the Olympians who stubbornly clung to divine status ended up trapped on their own planes, able to interact only with mortals very specifically connected to them. In the case of the Olympians, that meant descendants or reincarnations of descendants, and even in such a case, a mortal would have to specifically invoke an Olympian to make contact. Those rules should limit contact to Tal (reincarnation of Patroclus and Hephaestion), Alex (descendant of Ares), and Shar (descendant of Zeus through Perseus, and reincarnation of Achilles and Alexander the Great). However, Shar got Tal’s warriors onto Olympus during the quest for the lyre of Orpheus, and as a result, Apollo believed any of them might be able to invoke Olympian aid, though so far only the three named above have done so successfully. Only the Olympians who play some role in the story are mentioned.
Aphrodite: Former goddess of love, previous-life stepmother to Tal; tried to get Eva to love Tal.
Apollo: Former god of light, truth, prophecy, and many other areas; takes over control of Olympus after the disappearance of Zeus.
Ares: Former war god, who seemed to be in league with Hecate; tried to manipulate Alex into killing Tal.
Artemis: Former goddess of the hunt; tried to convince Carla men weren’t worth the trouble.
Asclepius: Former god of healing; with Hermes, worked to find a way to restore Alex’s mind and body.
Athena: Former goddess of wisdom and victory in battle.
Demeter: Former goddess of fertility, who has been missing for some time when Tal first meets the Olympians.
Dionysus: Former god of wine.
Eros: Former god of love; responsible for one of the blessings on Khalid’s arrows.
Hades: Former god of the dead and ruler of the Underworld, Hades was at first hostile to Tal and his men, but eventually the Olympian was won over when Tal saved him from a revolt sponsored by Hecate. Initially Hades was at odds with the children of Zeus over who should rule in Zeus’s absence, but Tal helped end this conflict.<
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Hera: Former queen of the gods, who had been missing for some time when Tal first met the Olympians.
Hecate: A former multifunction goddess given special honors by Zeus, Hecate was shunned by her resentful Olympian kin. Eventually, she became alienated from the others and became the patron of evil witches and dark magic. She is thought to be responsible not only for the disruptions on the Olympian plane but for many of Tal’s problems in this world.
Hephaestus: Former god of fire and blacksmith of the gods; previous-life father of Tal (Hephaestion); frequent supplier of gear for Tal’s warriors.
Hermes: A former messenger of the gods, a god of thieves and merchants, and a guider of souls to the Underworld, Hermes in the last capacity helped Tal and his warriors enter the Underworld during the quest for the lyre of Orpheus. Hermes exchanged information about magic with Tal, after which both became stronger casters.
Hestia: Former goddess of the hearth
Muses: Former goddesses of various arts and sciences
Persephone: Daughter of Demeter and unwilling wife of Hades, Persephone sided with Tal’s warriors after being charmed by Khalid. As Hades softened during his reconciliation with the younger gods, her relationship with him improved.
Poseidon: A former god of the sea, Poseidon became an enemy of the younger ex-gods after they refused his leadership following the disappearance of Zeus.
Zeus: A former king of the gods and storm god, Zeus disappeared shortly before Hera and Demeter did. His absence became one of the key factors disrupting Olympus.
Places
Alcina’s island: As its name suggests, the headquarters of the sorceress Alcina during her life; once discovered by Tal and his warriors, it became headquarters on a different plane, good for practicing magic but also good for hiding if necessary.
Annwn: Plane on which Celtic (particularly Welsh) faeries live.
Olympus: Generic term sometimes used for the Olympian plane, the place where the former Greek gods live.
Santa Brígida: Hometown of Tal and his warriors, located in the Santa Barbara area; originally created by Ceridwen as a way to lure Tal’s parents close enough so that she could easily snatch Tal once the time was right.
Underworld: The realm of the dead on the Olympian plane; despite friendlier relations, Tal and his warriors were banned from entering without permission.
Terms
Awakening spell: Brutal method developed by Ceridwen (probably with help from Nicneven and/or Hecate) to awaken a person’s past-life memories; it awakened multiple lives in Tal, but typically it only awakens the strongest past-life memories; the brain interprets these past lives as separate personas, an effect which can lead to something that looks like multiple personality disorder; typically, past personas tend to fixate on the most traumatic part of their lives and have difficulty tearing themselves away from it.
Blood double (or double): Spell-created duplicate of a person so exact that even the DNA and thoughts are the same (though the thoughts of the person on whom the spell is cast do lie beneath); much more effective disguise than illusions or normal shapeshifting; requires blood of the original to initiate or renew.
Portal: Way of traveling from one plane of existence to another; because of the more “flexible” geography of other realms in relation to one another and to Earth, used to travel great distances within the same plane.
Tynged: Welsh term for an obligation imposed by magic; in the series it is used as a mechanism for making an agreement between two parties magically binding.
The Adventure Isn’t Over!
If you liked this novel, you might also like the other volumes in the Spell Weaver series, also available from Amazon.
“Echoes from My Past Lives” is a short prequel that tells the story of Tal’s original transformation. Find out how his past lives first became a part of his present one—and how that process nearly cost him his life.
Living with Your Past Selves, the first book in the series, picks up Tal’s life four years after “Echoes from My Past Lives” ends and a short time before Divided among Yourselves begins. Having managed to survive the avalanche of past-life memories, Tal pulls himself together and makes good use of the lessons learned and skills developed in those previous lives. He still has the ability to work magic, and there is no denying that’s cool. No, his life isn’t perfect, but he is managing.
However, his best friend, Stan, has begun to suspect his secret, and Stan isn’t the only one. Suddenly, Tal is under attack from a mysterious enemy and under the protection of an equally mysterious friend whose agenda Tal can’t quite figure out. An apparition predicts his death. A shapeshifter disguised as Stan attacks him. An old adversary starts acting like a friend. He and some other students get hurled into Annwn (the Otherworld), face Morgan le Fay, and barely get back alive—and that’s just during the first month of school!
By now Tal knows he is not the only one who can work magic and certainly not the only one who can remember the past. He realizes there is something that he is not remembering, something that could save his life or end it, some reason for the attacks on him that, as they escalate, threaten not only him but everyone he loves as well. In an effort to save them, he will have to risk not only his life, but even his soul.
Divided against Yourselves, the second novel in the series, picks up Tal’s story within days of the end of Living with Your Past Selves. Tal thought that he had saved himself and his friends when he defeated the witch Ceridwen. He was wrong.
He always thought of evil as embodied in external threats that he could overcome in combat. Soon he will discover that the worst evil has been inside of him all along.
Tal’s girlfriend is in a coma for which he holds himself responsible. A close friend, suffering from a past-life memory trauma similar to Tal’s, is getting worse, not better. Morgan le Fay is still lurking around and has an agenda Tal can’t figure out. Supernatural interruptions in his life are becoming more frequent, not less so, despite his expectations. In fact, Tal learns that something about his unique nature amplifies otherworldly forces in ways he never imagined were possible—ways that place at risk everyone close to him.
Tal and his allies must face everything from dead armies to dragons. As soon as they overcome one menace, another one is waiting for them. More people are depending on Tal than ever; he carries burdens few adults could face, let alone a sixteen-year-old like himself. Yet somehow Tal at first manages to handle everything the universe throws at him.
What Tal can’t handle is the discovery that a best friend, almost a brother, betrayed him, damaging Tal’s life beyond repair. For the first time, Tal feels a darkness within him, a darkness that he can only barely control—assuming he wants to. He’s no longer sure. Maybe there is something to be said for revenge, and even more to be said for taking what he wants. After all, he has the power.
Hidden among Yourselves, the third novel in the series, picks up shortly after the ending of Divided among Yourselves. Tal faces more challenging mysteries than he has ever dealt with before. Unfortunately, solving them means the difference between life and death—and not just for Tal.
He must find out why the spirit of murder is stalking the people of Santa Brígida. He must find out why a war god wants him dead. To keep a powerful enemy from going free, he must find and retrieve an ancient artifact from a realm he did not believe existed, a realm that he cannot enter, and which none of the inhabitants can leave. Along the way he must also try to figure out if one of his friends is really Alexander the Great reincarnated, how someone could be spontaneously resurrected, and whether a madman is really as mad as he seems.
As if these mysteries were not enough, Tal must also confront opponents stronger than ever—armies of them—and this time they aren’t going to take prisoners. Not only that, but another one of Tal’s friends will betray him, and in a way that will make the earlier betrayal seem like an act of kindness.
“Destiny or Madness” is a paraquel to Hidden among
Yourselves that looks at the events in chapter 2 of that work from Alex’s point of view.
Alex is on the verge of getting what he always wanted: a chance to escape from his dull life and enter the world of Greek mythology. Unfortunately, he also discovers the truth of the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it!
Tasked by Ares, the god of war, with killing one of his fellow students, Alex questions his own sanity. That’s just the beginning of Alex’s problems, though. Now trapped in a struggle between supernatural forces he can’t begin to understand and forced to use a weapon that is really using him, Alex’s only escape may be to find the love that has eluded him his whole life.
Evil within Yourselves, the fourth book in the series, begins shortly after the ending of Hidden among Yourselves.
Taliesin Weaver has survived attack by vindictive witches, ferocious dragons, scheming faerie kings, and even angry ex-gods. Unfortunately, his enemies have not given up, and now they are scheming to destroy the foundation on which his success has been built: his friends.
One by one the people closest to Tal fall for tricks that lure them out of town, leaving them—and him—more vulnerable to attack. Even worse, some of them unwittingly succumb to temptations that tie them to Tal’s worst enemies and set them up to fail Tal when he needs them most.