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The doomed land of Estcarp stood alone, menaced from the north and south, and from the sea to the west. Only the dark people of her fields, her cities and her towers are able to hold back the press. Theirs might be a losing cause, but they would go down fighting to the last blow of sword from the last living Guardsman, the last blasting weapon man or woman could lay hand upon.

Alone among the nations of the continent Estcarp wielded a strange and fearful weapon, and the hatred and dread of her neighbors was founded on that very weapon - magic. To Alizon in the north, Karsten in the south, the power of the witches was evil. But the terror that threatened from the west was an alien evil from a source unknown.

Simon Tregarth, whose own Earthly prowess had won him a throne and a witch-wife in an alien world, knew that both triumphs were precarious as long as the super-science of Kolder held a foothold on that planet. And his premonitions were right when those invaders from another dimension made their final diabolical strike for total conquest.

The offspring of Simon Tregarth, half earthling, half witch-brood, realized that they alone could perceive the four directions-for everyone else, there was no East! It was a blank in the mind, a blank in legend and history. And when new menaces threatened, the Tregarths realized that in that mental barrier there lay the key to all their worldsomewhere to the unknown eastward must lie the sorcery that had secretly molded their destinies!

Kyllan the warrior, Kaththea the untried witch, Kemoc, whose powers could surpass all others- these are the half-Earthling, half witch-brood family menaced by the sorceries of an unknown enemy. The burden of the struggle fell to Kemoc, who was forced to summon his untested powers in the battle to match the alien evil threatening the Witch World.

Kaththea the Sorceress called forth a power such as no longer existed on the distant planet known as the Witch World. It was a power so great that it could destroy all that she loved best - and might even prove to be a greater evil than the shadow itself. Yet there could be no other choice for Kaththea than to call on Hilarion in the death-naming. For she was a witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only this ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough.

In this long-awaited continuation of Andre Norton's famous Witch World fantasy saga, the past and the future merge as THE LOST BATTLE OF WITCH WORLD is fought again - but this time, it must be won! For as ancient heroes walk again by day, so do ancient evils - and it is up to Yonan the weakling, and Crytha, the untrained witch-girl, to halt the Forces of Darkness by the power of the SWORD OF ICE, the SWORD OF SHADOW... and one sword more.

Spurred on by a recurring dream, Tirtha accompanied by a falconer, embarks on a dangerous journey to her ancestral home, aware that she is bound by a spell to fulfill a mission whose purpose is unknown to her.

A stone ring in the Scottish Highlands becomes the gateway through which Kelsie McBlair enters a new world and becomes embroiled in a struggle beween Light and Dark for power over the Green Valley. Norton's many Witch World fans will welcome this return to a land of powerful witches, mail-clad warriors, and mysterious Old Ones.