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sorceress in the Haunted Marsh of Fincayra , he was trying to save the magical Mirror that had revealed his future. And more: He was fighting to save his own destiny. For he had just met someone from the distant future—someone he had never expected to meet—who had told him how to avoid being trapped forever by Nimue in a crystal cave on Earth .
    As Nimue smirked at him malevolently, Merlin thought how much she had changed from the apple-cheeked girl he had met years before in Pluton 's bakery during the quest of the Seven Songs . Yet perhaps only her outward appearance had changed. For during Pluton's explanation of the magic of Naming, she had tried to steal Merlin's staff . And now, in the Haunted Marsh, she again wanted that staff . . . as well as his life.
    It would take more than the young wizard's emerging powers to prevail. It would take the love of the deer woman Hallia , the loyalty of the dragon Gwynnia , and the surprising gratitude of marsh ghouls—whose arrows could douse the light of day. And it would take one thing more: the help of Merlin's disobedient shadow.
    Ohnyalei, the staff of Merlin
    When young Merlin gained his staff from a magical hemlock tree in the Druma Wood of Lost Fincayra , he couldn't have guessed what awesome power it would one day possess. Yet even as the staff's magic grew, it never lost its original sweet yet tart fragrance of hemlock. That smell, more than anything else, always reminded Merlin of his first true home.
    In the course of its adventures with Merlin, the staff acquired seven runes through the help of Tuatha —symbolizing the Seven Songs of Wizardry , the greatest ideas the young wizard needed to master. The runes depict a butterfly, for the power of Changing; a pair of soaring hawks, for Binding; a cracked stone, for Protecting; a sword, for Naming; a star within a circle, for Leaping; a dragon's tail, for Eliminating; and an eye, for Seeing. While the staff was in Fincayra, the runes glowed with an eerie blue light; in Avalon , that color shifted to green.
    Tall and gnarled, with a knotted top, the staff rarely left Merlin's side. In time, it gained surprising power, even wisdom, of its own. Merlin believed that it contained an extraordinary concentration of élano , the life-giving sap of the Great Tree. He decided to call it Ohnyalei, which means spirit of grace in the Fincayran old tongue. Many years later, he was counting on its wisdom when he entrusted it to a young eagleboy named Scree . For there could be no separating the fates of the staff, of Merlin's true heir, and of Avalon itself.
    Olwen
    So much did the mer woman Olwen love the wizard Tuatha , in the ancient days of Fincayra , that she decided to leave her people as well as her ancestral home in order to be with him. This took great courage. It is said that the mer people initially scorned her for this decision, but ultimately came to respect the power of her love. Centuries later, they honored Olwen's memory by creating a miraculous bridge across the sea to help her grandson Merlin . This bridge not only saved Merlin's life; it enabled him to solve at last the riddle of his people's lost wings .
    Because of Olwen's enduring compassion, Tuatha finally agreed to assist Merlin in the quest of the Seven Songs . Through that quest, Merlin's staff Ohnyalei gained remarkable powers. And Merlin himself gained the wisdom that would allow him, one day in the future, to obtain a magical seed that beat like a heart—a seed that would ultimately grow into the Great Tree of Avalon .
    Pluton
    If the stature of bakers is measured in the size of their waistlines, Breadmaster Pluton of Fincayra would be enormous on both counts. This plump, ruddy-cheeked fellow was filling his pitcher from the town's unique bread fountain, as he had every day for many years, when he saw young Merlin do something nearly impossible: convince two hungry, ill-mannered boys to share a loaf of molasses bread. (Merlin had merely suggested that