The Skeins of Magik

In the modern world, where energy and power substitute for magik, Theolonia Crabbe bases her new life in New York where she has found opportunities in the cosmetics industry. The self-deceit and narcistic focus of cosmetics are perfect tools for her. With a little earth-magik enhancements in the ingredients, the products become almost compulsory. Profits blossom. Fame and power are her rewards.

The fugitive wizard attracts a motley crew of new-age wierdo's and criminal elements that are, literally, under her spell. Theolonia has come to terms with the fact that her dead brothers' mandrake legacy has, in part, survived within her own soul.

Danny Royce sees the face of Theolonia in the press, and informs his alter-persona Garreth Aldredgel. Salamander Ord, wizard, secures agreement from the Triumvar to seek out Theolonia in the strange world she has escaped to and enlists the help from one of the phase-shifting, temporally anomalous, intra-dimensional incendiaries... to whit, a dragon. Dragons are intelligent...very. And small... sometimes. They understand magik, but cannot practise it. They are difficult to ensorcel or affect by magikal means because of their phase-shifting. And they can travel across the interface between the world of magik and the world of null.

Chu'thu'ukk is an androgyne dragon that never chose a sex. It is very old and can remember first-hand stories of the bringing of the first dragons from the third Earth. It is wary of man, but likes wizards. And cats. It knows of Danny's world from dragon legends, including the one that says dragons can travel between worlds. There is a forbidden dragon-lore that says that in the original dragon-world, the third Earth, the people there adapted dragons for their own purposes...that dragons were made!

Through the mirror created from the spell of The Book of Null, Garreth Aldredge swaps places with his alter-twin, Danny Royce. For both young men it's an exciting chance to visit the strange world beyond the mirror.

Afferton Smythe, the eighty-three years old were-wolf, is taken across by Lha'thu'cha, a young androgyne of indeterminable years. It is assigned to help Salamander and Garreth. Luther, as it becomes known as, takes to Afferton and Mr Toast, the cat. It is confused by the Danny/Garreth concept, but uses the transfer knowledge to understand the Book of Null spell and recall how dragons actually can travel the intra- and inter-dimensional highway...and take a passenger.

Luther loves humour...jokes...japes...puns and pranks. It also loves country music.

Danny, meanwhile, is happy to be back in the world of magik. That is, until Salamander Ord takes him to the frozen North to bargain with the dragons yet again. Things have gone badly in the mirror world and Theolonia's powers are too great for a failed mage like Garreth... even if he did have some null ability. So Salamander must go, and Danny must go with him as guide.

Chu'thu'ukk has his own agenda. He needs Danny's special anti-magikal ability to identify a problem that's developing on the dragon's original world, so while Salamander is whisked through the interface on the back a dragon to fly to Garreth's aid, Danny's dragon takes him somewhere entirely different...and strange. The third Earth. A reality where the dinosaur-killer asteroid didn't crash to earth sixty-five million years ago; where massive ice caps cover the poles; where the dominant life form is Neanderthal man. And Neander-man knows about dragons... and who made them. And why.

Salamander Ord and his strange posse take on Theolonia in a battle of wits. Their weapons are those that Theolonia used to build her empire, and bit by bit they use them to dismantle it. Products start to have the opposite effect to those desired; enchantments are corrupted by the dragon's presence; modern technology and weapons meet earth-magik and Salamander Ord... and come off second best.

Theolonia is desperate. She has to escape again! But where? In a stroke of luck, Danny Royce, and his dragon, blunder into her clutches after leaving the third Earth. Theolonia hadn't known of the dragon's secret, and if she hadn't, her reasoning told her, then Salamander Ord hadn't either. To force the dragon to take her, she transferred the residual evil personality of her dead mandrake-brother to Danny and held his mind hostage.

Again, Theolonia escaped the clutches of the Law in the nick of time.

Salamander Ord is furious. Danny's mind is corrupted and he must remove the parasite. His foe has disappeared without trace. Questions are being asked in the mirror-world of magik and pressure mounts for the wizard to explain himself. He is ordered home.

For the first time both Garreth and Danny are together at the same time, and, courtesy of some enormous magikal and ecclesiastical powers, the wizard uses Garreth's mind to rid Danny of the foul emanations of the mandrake.

Then Salamander Ord learns the truth... there are gateways on the third Earth that lead to the mirror worlds.

And there are creatures seeking to enter them.