Song of Time

Song of Time
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Publishing Information
Author(s)	Teri McLaren
First printing	1996
ISBN-13	978-0061056222
Preceded By Distant Planes Followed By And Peace Shall Sleep

Song of Time is the eighth Magic novel. It was published by HarperPrism in June 1996. It was written by Teri McLaren (a.k.a. Teri Williams).

Blurb

The pieces to a vast, mysterious, and ancient puzzle come together to form the secret society known as the "Circle," but when Cheyne, a young archaeologist, becomes determined to solve the ancient riddle and find the Armageddon Clock before the Beast of the Hours awakes.

Plot

Brothers' War

During the Brothers' War, Mishra leads an army of wizards against his brother Urza. Urza summons a cockatrice but can't control it. Mishra calls in his elite wizards, a group of songmages called The Circle. They try to kill the cockatrice, but there is a traitor in their midst who screws up the ritual, so they can only trap it. Mishra is delighted though, charging the head songmage, known as The Collector, with crafting a song that can release and control the creature. Knowing that the release of the creature will mean Armageddon, the mage makes a song that will use the crystals in a magical valley called the Chimes to kill the creature upon its release. But the traitor in the circle called The Raptor, comes in and kills him before he can write all the instructions down correctly.

Post-Ice Age Terisiare

The last member of the Circle, an archaeologist named Javin and his adopted son Cheyne, are excavating a site that they hope is the final resting place of the Collector. They stumble on another corpse, which holds a totem with symbols on it similar to the totem Cheyne has. This triggers Cheyne to go and find out the truth about his birth parents. While investigating in the local city of Sumifa, he befriends, a down-on-his-luck songmage called Ogwater. Ogwater agrees to guide Cheyne to the Chimes, where the local elves might be able to translate the symbols on the two totems. First, they go and buy a map though. With Claria, a descendant of the Collector, they travel to the Chimes. They pass through an orc kingdom, a selkie kingdom, and an ice-monster kingdom. All the while they are followed by local mob boss Riolla, who is working for the Raptor. The Raptor's minions get their hands on the various artifacts of the Circle that the heroes had found or inherited and release the cockatrice. But Ogwater has recovered his magical gems from the orc-, selkie- and Rigida kingdoms and starts fighting it with songmagic. In the end, Riolla, his former lover, gives him the last of his artifacts back and he can defeat the cockatrice.

Planned trilogy

Teri McLaren wrote a sequel to Song of Time, called "Shadows of Time" which would expand on the Rigida Beasts. It was never published, due to a change in ownership of the series from HarperPrism to Wizards of the Coast. A planned second sequel (making it a trilogy) was never written.