Legends aren't supposed to come to life. Someone should've told that to the developers of the virtual reality game Feyland.
And your life isn't supposed to become a legend. But for Elphin the minstrel, his life resembles a fairytale. One of those dark fairy stories that gives you nightmares and wakes you screaming in the dark.
Trapped by an evil crone in the icy wastes of the faerie realm, his future seems hopeless—until he meets Scots teenager Corinne MacArthur, who stumbles into his life via the high-tech computer game Feyland.
She holds the key to his deliverance—if he can only keep her safe from the otherworldly creatures who inhabit the realm.
It's no small task for a peaceable troubadour in a land which blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, where magic is a stock-in-trade, and where the improbable is a daily occurrence…
But Corinne's dreams weren't good. More like nightmares.
The slavering hellhounds from the Wild Hunt were in full war cry, chasing the mysterious minstrel she'd first seen at the Bright King's court in Feyland.
In her dream, the minstrel raced frantically through the dense forest, copper curls plastered to his sweat-sheened forehead and plaid cloak streaming behind him like a flag. The hounds were at his heels when a blue-faced hag appeared from nowhere and threw up an arm. Instantly, a wall of ice formed behind the minstrel, stopping the hunt in its tracks—and entombing him in its freezing clutches.
Corinne woke with her heart racing, the memory of his pleading green eyes searing her very soul. It had seemed so real. Had it just been a dream?
The other night, her dreams of racing through the forest on the back of a white unicorn had come true—in the Feyland game, at least. Could the minstrel's plight have been real?
When his eyes had locked on to hers the first time she'd seen him in Feyland, she'd felt an inexplicable connection—as if they were somehow destined to meet.
Perhaps she should see if she could visit the sim café again this afternoon, just one more time. In case the minstrel needed her.
But first I've got a lost horse to sort out.
Throwing the quilt back, she jumped out of bed.
Feyland would have to wait.
