Settled by a human expedition over 1,000 years ago, the planet Charm is both magical and dangerous. Volcanoes, scattered throughout the vast landscape, erupt with a fantastic array of colors creating Chroma zones and permeating everything and everyone with color magic.
The barbarian Havoc became king of this strange land and immediately found himself a target to unknown powerful assassins.
Having finally secured a firm grip on governing the planet with the help of the God-like Glamors, Havoc and his companions must now set off in search of seven mysterious ikons in an attempt to learn the secret of the Changelings ... a secret that could answer all of Havoc's questions, or lead him to his doom.
Piers Anthony is one of the world's most prolific and popular authors. His fantasy Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and have been on the New York Times Best Seller list twenty-one times. Although Piers is mostly known for fantasy and science fiction, he has written several novels in other genres as well, including historical fiction, martial arts, and horror. Piers lives with his wife in a secluded woods hidden deep in Central Florida.
Eruption!
The whole mountain vibrated. Gale felt a wash of sheer magic. She knew it immediately: the eruption!
They were too late. They could not survive a full eruption while on or in the cone itself.
She ran for the exit, boosted by the growing force of the eruption, which was shoving the entire chamber outward. She envisioned the magma, gas, smoke, ash, and pyroclastic cloud jamming up the throat of the cone, like a monstrous male emission, forcing it to expand. In a moment it would blow off the top of the mountain and vent into the sky, blasting everything in the vicinity. She felt both its awesome physical and magic power. She was but a fly on the surface of the bomb as it detonated.
Still she ran, determined to get as far as she could before it blew her to oblivion. She came to the cave entrance. There was Throe. She had almost forgotten him. His feet were destroyed, melted away by the lava. He couldn’t walk. Even if she could get free of the cone, by some miracle, how could she save him too?
The cone fragmented. Gale felt the overwhelming force of it shoving everything ferociously away.
She whirled and threw herself down on Throe, clasping him, trying to protect him from the dreadful power of the blast. She knew it was a pitiful gesture, but it was all she could do at this stage. Neither of them had any chance of survival.