Fifth in the initial Witch World series, this follows on from the events in 'Warlock of the Witch World', where Kaththea, one of the triplets whose stories have been followed since 'Three Against the Witch World', was stripped of her powers, following her misuse of them due to the beguiling of the Svengali character, Dinzil. Now bereft of her psychic defences, Kaththea is beset by dreams and fears she will be overcome by the forces of the Shadow which beset the Green Valley in Escore where she and her two brothers have been given a haven. Sure that the only solution is to return to their country of origin, Estcarp, in the hope that someone there can help her recover her powers, she travels in the company of her two brothers and two other men, one a mountaineer.

The usual pass has been blocked by the Shadow and they are forced to climb a more dangerous one. As it is winter, there is an avalanche and Kaththea is buried. She is later 'rescued' by a tribesman, but he is violent and, it appears, set on turning Kaththea into his personal sex slave on his return to the nomadic tribe to whom he belongs. Only the intervention of their wise woman saves her, but the woman is of the Old Race like Kaththea and is now nearing the end of her long life. She wants Kaththea to take her place and trains her to that end, but does not restore her foreseeing ability, which was worse affected when she paid the penalty for following Dinzil. She also ensures Kaththea's reluctant presence by imbuing a mat that Kaththea crossed to enter her tent with a spell to prevent her from travelling far from the tribe. Kaththea must use unflinching stoicism to overcome that spell and try to escape - and when she does, she finds that her lack of foreseeing ability and reliance on a mechanical aid has not served the tribe well.

In the rest of the story she ends up going through a gate to another world, created by one of the adepts whose pursuit of knowledge for its own sake led to the Shadow becoming dominant, and she becomes embroiled in a centuries-long war between two cultures which have now sunk to a demeaned and dehumanised state, but she also is reunited with her parents who disappeared in 'Three Against the Witch World' and it was nice to see those two characters in action again. She also encounters the adept who created the gate who is a prisoner of one of the sides in the war, his power drained to run their machines. As people such as him brought about the current situation in Escore, she wonders whether he is another Dinzil and is reluctant to trust him.

There was a lot to enjoy in this re-read which suffered only because of the rushed ending. It also wasn't that credible that Kaththea goes from being highly suspicious of Hilarion to realising he is her lifemate - if there had been more of a conflict in her between those feelings, it would have had much more credibility. Also, the nomadic tribe was well set-up and there were some good characters, but ultimately they don't do much in the book which changes direction mid-way. Hence, this is a 3-star rating despite the fact that I enjoyed it. ( )

Again just as great as the first reading. ( )