User:Auric/Web of the Witch World (novel)

 Web of the Witch World is a fantasy or science fiction novel by Andre Norton, published as a paperback original by Ace Books in 1964. It continued the Witch World series.

Plot summary
Continuing on from the first novel, Jaelithe, now Simon's wife and no longer a true witch, wakes from a dream sensing something evil stirring. The fact that she can sense it means that she is still in some part a witch.

Simon thinks they can reach Lys, stronghold of the Koldre, but a force bubble surrounds it. Simon reasons that it can be breached by air, using some of the Kolder airplanes. He reaches them, but is overwhelmed by a Kolder fragment of mind. The mind repairs the craft and takes off for Lys. Jaelithe manages to confuse his course and he flies inland instead of to Lys, which is on the coast. Simon fights off the fragment, but he cannot control the craft now.

Simon and Loyse crash in the Tormarsh. Aldis attempts to call for help from the Kolder, but Simon knocks her out. They lock her in the aircraft and set out. They discover they have landed on an island, which has a very old road of cut stone leading away. One of the pillars has a carved top, similar to that of Volt, last survival of a pre-human race, to whom Koris' axe once belonged to. The sides of the road are littered with old ruins and some traces of recent occupations. They continue along the road, only to find that it terminates at a stone jetty. Exhausted, they collapse at the bog's edge.

Simon wakes to find them captured by the Tormen. They are questioned intently, particularly about how Koris claimed his axe. The Tormen are those that Volt instructed and have set themselves apart. The two are given up to the Kolder, who have threatened the Tormen with destruction if they do not yield them up. The two are taken on a submarine on a bumpy ride along an underground river that drains into the sea.

Jaelithe has been searching for the two and uses their faint mental connection to locate them. They follow, encountering a type of deadly sea weed that the Kolder have encouraged to grow in order to keep others out. Realizing that the weed can burn, she has the crew spread sea oil on the weed. Fire catches, but it is not enough. Raising a song, she fans the now burning sea weed until they are consumed by flames.

Simon and Loyse arrive at the Kolder base, on a rocky shore. They are offered the chance to join with the Kolder, and are given time to think it over. Simon manages to escape, as the locks are thought activated. He takes Loyse and Avis with him. They head for a mesa, where most of the Kolder left have gone. They manage to pass through the Kolder gate, arriving in the middle of a storm. Simon finds a strange weapon in a ruined house they shelter in. The weapon apparently kills using thought. They encounter a group of skeletal people. Avis proclaims this "The Last Garrison", which was to guard the escape of their superiors and be killed. They have survived and are angry with the Kolder, who assured they would return for them. They take control of the Kolder that comes through and turn them back, enter the gate to kill and be revenged. Avis runs off with the Kolder thing that would allow them to go back. They search for her in the ruined city and find her dead, having been killed by something. They pry the Kolder thing from her hand and go back. Simon uses the strange weapon to destroy the gate. The talisman burns his hand and he falls unconscious.

When he recovers, his hand is bandaged. The old Kolder have been killing and wrecking now for some time. The fleet Jaelithe called for has arrived and the fight begins in earnest. Jaelithe and Simon control the Kolder in the base and have them shut down the defenses. The old Kolder swarm inside as do the raiders from the fleet and soon all the Kolder are dead. The three make sure that the machines at the Kolder base cannot be used by any others.