Description: The Summoner''s Ascent begins exactly at the point where its predecessor finished: back in the claustrophobic tunnels of the defeated Red Root King. Finny, Sean and Benvy have no time to process the death of the uncles, or the fact that they are being dragged back into the musty hell from which they only just escaped with their lives. Ayla urges them back down into the darkness, the gloom ahead lit in flashes by the strange sparks in her eyes. The tunnels are tighter, collapsed in places so that the only way through is to squeeze between the rubble. A fog of dust blinds them and invades their airways. Eventually Finny takes hold of Ayla''s arm, demanding an explanation. When she turns, her eyes are burning ferociously, white-hot. She is almost aggressive. ''We have to save them! Just follow me!'' Her friends are frightened, but they follow. They crawl deeper and deeper into the lair. The earth around them rumbles with threat as it grinds against itself. They hear panicked calls of the black goblin creatures. Then they hear a shriek which freezes them all to the spot, even Ayla. It is Maeve. Eventually, they reach the ledge where Benvy had fallen into the great hall. The vast pillars are crumbling, sinking into the ground in explosions of dust and rock. They see goblins, scurrying to safety. The three friends are shocked to see some of them help each other. Finny tries to pull Ayla back, pleading with her to return to the surface, but she slips from him and clambers down into the disintegrating hall. They hurry after her, just as the nightmarish half-finished form of Maeve emerges from the dark. They will have to fight. During the battle the friends can barely tear their eyes from Ayla. She is like a storm of anger, not in control of her power, grasping and clawing at the air, tugging down bolts of lightning from nowhere to strike at the mangled feet of the terrible Queen. The goblins cower behind her, their new saviour. Benvy throws the javelin, Sean strikes the ground with his hammer, Finny swings his sword, and Maeve retreats. They chase, ducking lethal pieces of falling stone, with Ayla relentlessly at the front. They pass the splintered remains of the horrible loom, and hoist themselves over the gigantic granite throne, now smashed into boulders. Behind the throne the mouth of a wider tunnel yawns wide and cold and they enter, never faltering in their pursuit until it ends in a giant room in which three great obelisks stand, their edges scored with Ogham script. Maeve slouches among them, running twisted fingers along the grooves and murmuring the words they represent. Ayla howls in anger, the shriek ending in a deafening thunderclap. But it is too late. Maeve is gone. Finny, Sean and Benvy - scared, shaking from adrenaline - point their weapons warily at the throng of goblins that stand in the cavern beside them. Glancing to Ayla, they notice her slow down, transforming back to herself from whatever that raging version of her was. She sobs and punches the ground. Eventually she calms. ''They won''t hurt you. They''re coming with us.'' ''Coming where? Home?'' ''No. We''re going to find Maeve and finish her.'' She reads the Ogham in a voice that isn''t hers and ground opens with a crack and a sharp gust of cold air. * * * They emerge into a wet, undulating forest and they are no longer alone. With Ayla''s strange new power, she is able to change the surviving goblins back into their true form - boys and girls wrenched from their lives and morphed into horrible goblins in the hope that they were Ayla. There is only a few left - seven girls and six boys, each now waking from a long nightmare and struggling to make sense of how they got there. Ayla has yet to understand or control the power she possesses. Some things seem innate - the ability to open gates and transform the goblins just appear to her without thinking. The summoning of thunder and lightning is less predictable... She herself seems different too. She is restless and quick to temper. Her thirst to chase Maeve is manic, voracious. She refuses to talk about her uncles, with tears brimming as soon as they are mentioned. When Maeve''s name is spoken, the tears are replaced by sparks. The happy, fun Ayla the friends had come to rescue has gone, left on the loom. As sad as this is to Benvy, Sean and especially Finny, they agree that there is still work to be done before they can return home. * * * The Summoner''s Ascent takes Ayla and her friends further from home and deeper into the strange and ancient world of Fal. The chase leads them through a land of ever-deepening magic, populated with characters bizarre and beautiful, wondrous and dangerous. It leads them to the Old Ones, where Ayla''s newfound powers are greeted with fear and trepidation. They will meet allies and enemies, old and new, with the lines blurred between friend and foe. When Ayla neglects all else but hunting Maeve, the friends make the hard choice to separate. Sean and Benvy will take the boys and girls to try and return them home, to their own times. It will take them to times dotted throughout history, including a return for Sean to the age of the Normans and an apprenticeship with Goll... Finny will not leave Ayla. Together they give chase to Maeve, against the orders of the Old Ones and find themselves outcast and hunted themselves. Ayla''s power grows with her insatiable hunger, until even Finny feels afraid and begins to wonder if he made the right choice... Their adventures will rejoin, however; merged with a single goal for all four. In the end there will be battles that spiral into war, and not everyone will fall on the same side...

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