Shadows on the Stars
T. A. Barron
 In the previous book, "Child of the Dark Prophecy", the evil sorcerer Kulwych made a pure crystal of élano out of the water from the White Geyser of Crystillia. Élano is the most powerful substance in Avalon, and is known for its power to create life. At the beginning of "Shadows on the Stars", the wicked spirit Rhita Gawr corrupted this pure crystal of élano and thereby transformed into an anti-matter-like version of itself, called vengélano, which destroys whatever it touches. Facing this danger, the three young heroes of this story, Tamwyn, Elli, and Scree, must push their abilities to its utmost limit in order to save Avalon. Tamwyn must somehow find his way to and relight the darkened stars of the constellation Wizard's Staff. Elli must seek the crystal of vengélano and destroy it. Scree must confront his greatest mistake, that nearly cost him his life and the staff of Merlin, to help defeat Rhita Gawr's army. Tamwyn, accompanied by Henni the hoolah and the small, winged creature called Batty Lad, leaves Avalon's root-realms – the seven familiar sections of Avalon, home to the greatest diversity of life-forms – and enters the trunk. There, he is separated from his friends. He discovers, among other things, growth rings of the Tree that tell of its entire history; places where giant termites dwell; and the people called Ayanowyn, whose once glorious society has become a dystopia. When living with the Ayanowyn, Tamwyn learns that if a Golden Wreath – a wreath of mistletoe, sacred to the Ayanowyn – were to appear among them, the one to whom it appeared would become their leader. While leaving the Ayanowyn to continue his travels, Tamwyn finds such a Wreath and leaves it with the one who has been his host, so that this one, who desires a return of his people's glory, becomes leader. Because, as a rule, humans think of trees as being wooden, the description of Avalon's trunk as being essentially made of stone and consisting of such topography as exists in our real world creates some ambiguity. In Avalon's tree-world, a knothole becomes a valley, and the outside of the trunk becomes similar to a cliff, or to Amara, though Avalon's surface is less steep than Amara's. In or near Merlin's Knothole, Tamwyn meets the sole survivor of his father Krystallus' expedition to the stars; Ethaun, a blacksmith who has made the Knothole/valley his home since the death of his leader. This man shelters Tamwyn; reforges Tamwyn's broken dagger; brings him to visit Krystallus' grave; and gives Tamwyn a globular compass by which to navigate the trunk and branches. Tamwyn eventually discovers that the stars that illuminate Avalon, occupying the niche held by the Sun in our world as well as the niche held by the stars of our night sky, are in fact "doors of fire" that lead, when opened, to other worlds including ours and the spirits' Otherworld. To rekindle the constellation Wizard's Staff, therefore, Tamwyn must shut the doors of which it is made. Elli, accompanied by Nuic, Shim, Brionna, and a priest of the order to which Elli belongs, called Lleu, attempt to seek the aid of the water dragons. This aid is slow in coming; therefore the questors leave the dragons' home. They travel via the portals that link the seven root-realms; mistakenly to the realm Malóch, where they learn that Elli's former tormentor Llynia is part of a eugenic, genocidal effort to impose human rule on all nonhuman life-forms. Escaping from Llyina's clutches with the help of a gnome whose life Elli had saved in the previous book, they continue with greater urgency to fulfill their purposes. In a dream created by Tamwyn's magic, he and Elli meet on a cloud. There he gives her a half-finished harp in replacement of the one he broke. In exchange they share a kiss. Scree has returned to Rahnawyn, the realm of his birth. There, he learns that the clan of eaglefolk called Bram Kaie is destroying other eaglefolk. Having experienced their cruelty firsthand, Scree attempts to attack the renegade clan alone. He has met their leader before; this leader, Quenakhya by name, had seduced Scree in order to seize the magic staff Ohnyalei. When he understood this, Scree had fled. On returning, he watches as Quenakhya's own son challenges and kills her in order to gain the leadership. Scree, immediately after, challenges this new leader and kills him. On her last breaths, the dying Quenakhya (Who supposedly tricked and seduced Scree in his younger years and having sex with him. The product of their sex is a eagleman of two tribes named Maulkee.Then near Qenakhya's death she asks Scree if he really loved her.)reveals that Scree is the father of the warrior whom he has slain. Ashamed of himself, but cognisant of necessity, Scree takes the leadership of Bram Kaie.