grew up being best friends with Roddy since he was three, together he and Roddy discover the Merlin conspiracy and then spend some time separated from the king's progress. Toby, Arianrhod's cousin from her aunt Dora. Ilsabil and Isadora are two twin sisters whose mother is Roddy's aunt, their mother and grandmother are hereditary witches. Maxwell Hyde is a magid who travels between worlds. He lives in Blest London with Dora (Maxwell's daughter) and Toby (Dora's son). He is Roddy's grandfather on her father's side. Gwyn ap Nud is Roddy's grandfather on her mother's side, he is also a magical being. Romanov, an extremely powerful magic user. He can work outside the rules that magids have in place. Reception The New York Times gave cautious praise to this novel, saying it "blends some New Age spirituality with the grand old Stonehenge/White Horse/Arthurian/Britain-as-Magicland material into a strong concoction", but felt that the characters could be more vivid and the mythology more inventive. The header of its review includes the note "(Ages 10 and up)", evidently provided by the publisher or the US imprint Greenwillow Books. References External links Excerpt from Google books 2003 British novels 2003 fantasy novels Children's fantasy novels Novels by Diana Wynne Jones HarperCollins books