SYNOPSIS:

Walking back to their home after collecting medicinal herbs, Drustan and his mother, Sibby, encounter a strange creature. They come upon a sluagh trapped underneath a fallen tree. According the Sibby, who is a powerful white witch, the sluagh is one of the underfolk; the most evil and wicked of the dark faeries. The sluagh travel in a massive horde, flying through the sky at sunset and feeding on the souls of the dying and hopeless. Against his mother’s advice, Drustan takes pity upon the creature and sets it free. Giving Drustan only a passing glance, the sluagh disappears into the dark forest. That same night an ancient and evil witch from Sibby’s past comes back seeking revenge, and the truth of Drustan birth is finally revealed. He was not born the son of a fallen hero as he believe; that was a story his mother had created to save him the shame of his birth. Drustan’s father was actually a Viking who led a raid on his mother’s childhood home, killing her family and raping her. The attack had been orchestrated by the evil witch Mora. Now, twenty years later, Mora and her coven of witches return to take revenge against Sibby for betraying her years ago. Drustan, being a skilled archer, defends his home from the witches and deals a near-fatal wound to Mora. After the witches have fled, Drustan decides that he must pursue Mora and insure she dies from her wound rather than risk her returning again. The next morning he sets out on his quest, not only to protect his family but to seek revenge for the circumstances of his own birth. From the very beginning, Drustan’s journey is filled with strange and mystical creatures of old Scottish lore. At a river’s bend Drustan encounters the Bean Nighe. Also known as “the washer woman”, she is a dark faerie who appears in the shallow of rivers and washes the burial clothes of those about to die. Her appearance is an omen of death. The Bean Nighe gives Drustan a dire warning in the form of a riddle, warning him of a hunter who brings death. That night Drustan is attacked by an evil creature known as a Redcap goblin. The Redcap is a murderous dwarf that kills travels and uses their blood to die his cap red. Not much is known of the Redcap because no one has met one and survived, that is, until Drustan. With the foreknowledge that the Bean Nighe provided, Drustan is able to save himself and kill the evil Redcap. Emboldened by his victory of the goblin, Drustan continues on his journey until he reaches the edge of the Caledonian Forest where Mora and her coven is believed to live. There he encounters a pair of mischievous faeries, Aster and her brother Tyree. After teasing and taunting Drustan, Aster decides to help him on his quest by granting him three wishes, but only in exchange for a kiss. Drustan agrees, unaware that Aster is tricking him into giving her his first true kiss. The first true kiss happens only once in a lifetime and therefore holds very powerful magic. Not only does she swindle him out of his first kiss, but she also uses the three wishes to prank Drustan. Drustan asks Aster for a sword, but when he needs the blade to save his life the weapon transforms into a twig. He asks her for directions to the witch’s lair and Aster gives him a compass that sends him in the opposite direction. His final wish is for a horse, and what Aster provides is an evil kelpie; an amphibious water spirit that takes the form of a horse on land then drags its victims into the water and drowns them. Drustan is saved from the kelpie by another strange being, a wulver named Gib. Gib is a benevolent half-man half-wolf who loves to fish. After saving Drustan from the kelpie, Gib takes a liking to the boy and decides to help him along his journey. Together they find the witch’s castle, and are relieved to find Mora’s dead remains. They also find a beautiful young maiden named Etta that is being held prisoner by the witches. Drustan is immediately smitten with the girl, but Gib is very suspicious of the circumstances. Once they have freed Etta and are away from the castle, the young maiden reveals her true self. She is Mora reborn. Etta/Mora places Drustan under a powerful love spell and takes him through the Fairy Door into a twilight world known as The Between. In this world, Etta is all powerful. She has raised an army of goblins and prepares to invade the faerie realm where she will steal the faerie magic and use to conquer the moral world. Drustan is oblivious to his situation, blinded by the love spell Etta has cast upon him. One day while searching the castle for his beloved Etta, he ends up in the dungeon where he finds Aster and her fellow faeries are being held prisoner. Using the power of his first kiss she stole, Aster awakens him from the spell. He and the faeries flee the castle, with Etta in pursuit. Their plan is to lure Etta into the mortal world where she is vulnerable, and there they will kill her. After a fierce battle in the mortal world, Drustan and his allies are defeated. Drustan sees many of his friends killed, and he knows that Etta will next turn her attention to killing his own family. In his grief Drustan remembers the sluagh and the dire warnings him mother had told him about dealing with the underfolk. “Do not speak their name after dark lest they descend like a whirlwind from the sky consuming all in their path.” Desperate and without hope, Drustan's last chance to save his family and the faerie world lies with calling upon the sluagh and trading himself to a horde of soul eating creatures. The horde descends from the sky and consumes Etta and her shoulders, but Drustan is saved from the onslaught by the same creature he had freed at the beginning of the story.