A Wizard in a Feud

Gar Pike and his colleague, Alea, must reunite a lost planetary colony, apparently consisting of Scots, who no longer possess the parts, fuels, and know-how to keep a technological civilization going. While the colony has spread, society has broken down into constantly warring clans equipped with muskets.

Add to this mix two intelligent, alien species, each with six limbs. In the more evolved species, the fairies, two of the limbs have become wings. Their ground-dwelling cousins, elves, are equipped with two sets of arms. Fairies, elves, and humans exist in an uneasy truce.

The humans have learned to avoid the deep forests, while the fairies and elves avoid the farms, and the ill-kept roads threatened by outlaws, and travel mainly by show more peddlers and priests of a religion that has largely fallen into disuse. On occasion, lovers from feuding clans take up residence near the fairy mounds or clearings protected by the aliens' psychic powers and herbalism. show less

In their final adventure before returning home in The Warlock's Last Ride, Magnus and Alea must land and make repairs to Herkheimer - presumably repairs to defects the computer detects as part of Evanescent's presence on the ship. When they land, the find themselves on a planet completely awash in clan warfare - feuds that date back hundreds of years. The question is then, how do you stop one hundred different feuds?

The answer: Magic!