Wizard’s Curse continues the saga of Tarkyn, Guardian of the Forest. Suitable readers of all ages from proficient 11year olds upwards.
Reviled by Ekuzor’s sorcerers, Prince Tarkyn dismisses his wizard’s belief that he is the future hope for the nation. In fact, when Tarkyn steps in to protect a sorcerer family under attack by bandits, he finds them cowering in fear of him.
But banditry and lawlessness are becoming widespread as King Kosar’s rule is undermined by his twin brother Jarand. Gradually, people begin to question the truth of the king’s accusations against Tarkyn, placing him under increasing pressure to take up the sorcerers’ cause against his brothers.
But his more immediate concerns are those of the woodfolk, whom he is sworn to protect. Tarkyn’s efforts, as forest guardian, to heal a woodfolk family go disastrously wrong; destroying a swathe of forest and nearly killing him. Worse still, the unbridled power he draws on to retrieve the situation threatens to distance him from his woodfolk companions while Danton, Tarkyn’s sorcerer liegeman, finds his life threatened by the clash between sorcerer and woodfolk expectations.
As Tarkyn and his homeguard continue their trek across the mountains to retrieve Falling Rain from unjust exile, mountainfolk attack Tarkyn and drug his companions. But something more than resentment of Tarkyn is wrong with these mountainfolk.
Tarkyn rescues Midnight, a silent, scrawny woodchild from abuse and neglect. Does this child hold the key to the mountainfolk’s perfidy? Tarkyn must summon all his courage to face what will be asked of him to save these people from becoming forever corrupt.
And when the prince and his homeguard reach their journey’s end, Tarkyn must lay bare his innermost suffering as he engages in a mental duel with an embittered woodman, to gain knowledge that will stun woodfolk and sorcerers alike with its implications.
