When a woman is brought to Escarp through a magical gate in Scotland, she is drawn into the struggle to defeat the darkness that is descending on the land.

I was intrigued by the magical journey into this land, and the way that the main character was treated, as an enemy, then an outsider, then as a reluctant ally. The magical jewel could have been a terrific talisman, as it healed, warned and guided. Unfortunately, it also put the main character under a spell, giving her a compulsion to go to a specific location at a specific time, with no explanation. To me, that’s not magic- it’s a cheat, though that might have been more common back when this book was written. It detracted from the story, as did the way the final battle was fought beyond mortal vision.

When the book started, I immediately thought of Outlander, but the ring of ancient stones forming a magical gate is the end of that similarity. While chasing a hunter intent on killing a predatory wildcat, Kelsie (or sometimes Kelsay, depending on where we are in the book), gets between them as the wildcat enters the ring, and Kelsie follows. She leaves her modern world, and the hunter, behind, and is transported to another place, another time.

She’s immediately set upon by an unknown hunter on a horse and his evil-looking hound. When they leave, she wanders around, and the wildcat gives birth. Kelsie finds a dying woman and her dead escort. The woman gives her an amulet as well as some words that seem to activate it. Scared, she returns to the circle of stones, in time to see the hunter return.

Eventually, Kelsie is rescued by some villagers, which reminds me a lot of the much more recent The Auriga Project, as she’s taken in and shown the local customs. The women don’t like her, while the men are more lenient –the only important one is Yonan. The village also hosts another man who seems to have come from our world (or is it their future?), Simon Tregarth. I wonder if he features in other Witchworld stories. He tells her that the gates only work one way, and that she is destined to help save them from the darkness.

There don’t seem to be many other villages in Escarp, as this one is surrounded by the forces of Darkness, which the warriors go out and fight every day. It also hosts a remaining Witch of Escarp, Wittle, who is livid that Kelsie has a witch’s stone without getting witch training. But it seems the stone chose Kelsie, as she gains some knowledge of limited spells, and wakes the stone up. She experiences flashbacks to the life of Roylane, the witch who gave her the stone, and the mission she was sent on, to find the place where they could renew their power.

In fact, it was the cat who took the jewel from Roylane and saved them from the dark rider and its hound, but the villagers won’t accept that at first. A couple of days later, the stone gets a mind of its own, putting Kelsie under a gaes that forces her to take up Roylane’s quest. Wittle refuses to help, but follows her as the stone nearly pulls Kelsie by the neck, over the mountains and by the river path.

Together, you’d think Kelsie would learn more about this land and its people, how it came to ruin, and so on, but all we get is a bit of arguing and a lot of wondering by Kelsie. The story was starting to drag to a halt until Yonan shows up. We last saw him in Trey of Swords, where he was under a gaes to fight an ancient battle against evil. I think he still has the last sword he obtained in that book.

They follow the jewel, and end up falling into a pit as the ground collapses, and they are captured by the Thas, the evil minions from Trey of Swords. Kelsie uses the jewel, and Yonan uses the butt of his sword to escape, until they issue from the caves into a swamp. At the exit, a being of dark power confronts them, confusing Yonan for its old enemy reborn, but together they are too strong for him.

Yonan finds a magical portal that takes them away from the swamp, where they are being hunted. Escaping that deteriorating magical house of walls without doors, they encounter Wittle again, who huffs and puffs at seeing Yonan, still unable to accept that he has magic. I wonder what the Witches were like in their full glory, the way they destroyed their lands to save them from the armies that contested the area. Unfortunately, these stories don’t give me any desire to go back and check out other Witchworld books.

They pass through a forest of trees that throw darts, lines of trees that have eyes that the Darkness can see through, and finally the mouth of a giant cave in the shape of death itself. There they are put under another spell, and lose themselves as if to poison and something that erodes their minds. Kelsie almost loses the jewel, but thanks to Yonan –I’m not sure how he escaped- she manages to get free. They climb up the exterior of the head-like cave and jump down, surviving.

The jewel takes them farther and farther into the middle of nowhere, down the continuing lines of trees, until they are ambushed at a ravine.

This is where the jewel has been leading them, as they see a miniature of the Escarp region far below. And inside that, another, and another, like a hall of mirrors. Instinctively, Wittle and Kelsie join their jewels and the jewels do the rest of the work, repelling the darkness into the mountains and beyond. Yonan is physically attacked, presumably just to keep him in the action, and he is seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Wittle whispers spells to try and help defeat the darkness, losing herself in the process. Eventually, she jumps over the edge. I half-expected to see her body fall to the ground from above them. It seems like by purging the lands far below of darkness, that they were also helping their lands, as if the different lands were all one. Yonan and Kelsie prove this by jumping into the ravine themselves, and ending up back at the village –because Yonan was too injured to walk, and the wildcat mysteriously appears giving them the way forward.

The jewels have disappeared, as has Wittle, presumably having completed her mission. Kelsie is given the chance to leave Escarp, but thinks of the wildcat and that there is nothing left for her in Scotland, so she decides to stay.

I’m never a fan of people being under compulsions to do things, nor when they blindly follow what must be done for the sake of the story, which in this case was wasn’t much of a story. I liked the magical aspects more, and their confrontation with the more intelligent beings rather than the Thas. Unfortunately, I have no compulsion of my own to continue reading these stories, as they are not well-formed and lack any real magic or even a compelling story. I’ve completed this trilogy of books, and plan to stop there.