Earth Magic (Electronic book text)

Neither swords-and-sorcery nor Tolkienesque romance, "Earth Magic" presents an archaic world in the tradition of the Northern European epic poems. Haldane, the young son of the Get warlord Black Morca, encounters a witch in the woods who unsettles his composure with prophecies of strange events and major changes. He returns home to find the first of the prophecies already come true--his father has been off raiding the more civilized countries to the West and has returned with a Western princess for Haldane to marry. Morca's ambitions arouse mistrust and anger among the other Get lords, and soon Haldane finds himself fleeing for his life with only a wizard of uncertain skills as his companion. Their journey will take them through hidden realms, to a decisive moonlight battle on Stone Heath amid the great menhirs, a place charged with earth magic and bloody memory. "Earth Magic" is one of several collaborations of the husband-and-wife team of Cory and Alexei Panshin, who received the 1990 Hugo award for their history of science fiction, "The World Beyond the Hill,"