Hardcover, 217 pages
English language
Published August 1974 by Atheneum.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
- ISBN:
- 978-0-689-30434-7
- OCLC Number:
- 901247
- ASIN:
- 068930434X
- Goodreads:
- 939333
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Sybel, daughter of a wizard, granddaughter of a wizard, knows little of the ways of men. She has spent her life in her crystal hall, high on a mountain, caring for legendary beasts she and the wizards before her have called. Beasts she holds through the power of her mind and her magic.
Nothing disturbs Sybel until a man comes bearing a baby, a distant relative of hers, he says. What am I to do with this? she asks. And he, sensing her coolness, her lack of regard for the merely human, almost leaves. But the child is in danger. It needs a hiding place. And reluctantly he leaves it.
The boy, Tam, for it is a boy, is soon worth more to Sybel than all of the animals she holds so closely. Though she does not give up calling the one animal she yet desires, the beautiful Liralen, she …
Sybel, daughter of a wizard, granddaughter of a wizard, knows little of the ways of men. She has spent her life in her crystal hall, high on a mountain, caring for legendary beasts she and the wizards before her have called. Beasts she holds through the power of her mind and her magic.
Nothing disturbs Sybel until a man comes bearing a baby, a distant relative of hers, he says. What am I to do with this? she asks. And he, sensing her coolness, her lack of regard for the merely human, almost leaves. But the child is in danger. It needs a hiding place. And reluctantly he leaves it.
The boy, Tam, for it is a boy, is soon worth more to Sybel than all of the animals she holds so closely. Though she does not give up calling the one animal she yet desires, the beautiful Liralen, she gives more and more of her time to Tam. She, in short, learns to love as humans love.
Yet not until she has learned the meaning of hate, of deception and intrigue and war and betrayal does she learn the real depths of love, the real measure and meaning of love. Good and evil, love and hate are part of the same for Sybel, and even, she discovers, for the elusive Liralen. She must learn all before she truly understands any.
