Story 2 Overview
Volume 2, "Death Gate Cycle"
**ELVEN STAR**
by Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman
published by Bantam Spectra
cover art by Keith Parkinson

Haplo Journeys to Pryan, World of Fire...

Directed once again by his master to search for the enemy
Sartan and to create discourse in the Mensch worlds, Haplo and
his Dog venture back through Death's Gate via a dragon ship made
by the Arianus elves. Reinforced with the Patryn's rune magic, the
wooden ship called "Dragon Wing" makes its way toward Pryan,
the World of Fire.

When Haplo and Dog break through Death's Gate into Pryan, they
are dazzled by the intense brightness of Pryan's four suns and by the
unfathomable vastness of Pryan's sky. It takes days to locate life on
this immense planet, but it seems news travels faster.

When Haplo lands his magic-shelled dragon ship on the treetop
elven realm of Equilan, a white-haired old man and several elves are
there to greet him. It seems that the old man, a nutty, confused magician
named Zifnab, foretold of Haplo's arrival and surprised Haplo with the
revelation that the Patryn would be this world's saviour.

The revelation would have been more seriously heeded if the strange,
befuddled sorcerer wouldn't make outlandish claims such as the coming
destruction of the world of Pryan, and that the world's inhabitants would
fly to the stars to begin anew with the best and brightest of each of the races.
The only aspect about Zifnab that anyone takes seriously is the huge,
green-scaled dragon seemingly under the wizard's enchantment that
accompanies him. Occasionally the enchantment slips, and the dragon
threatens to make a meal of the wizard or anyone else within swiping distance.
Meanwhile, the weapon sales continue with Paithan Quindiniar, the
son of Lenthan Quindiniar, elven landowner in Equilan, setting out to
deliver a shipment of magically enhanced, intelligent weapons to human
buyers in the town of Griffith. He meets Roland Redleaf and his sister,
Rega, and the dark, sullen dwarf known as Drugar.

This unlikely group would face more than civil war and racial prejudice
together as they set out to deliver the weapons to their real buyers,
Drugar's people, on the jungle floor. The rumors that the Tytans were
systematically wiping out whole cities are substantiated when the group
encounters a mass exodus of people fleeing the enraged giants. Indeed,
the weapons are a last effort by the dwarves to stop the rampaging Tytans
at the dwarven borders.

As the Tytans ascending destruction gets closer and closer to the
treetop realms, Haplo also seems to close in on Zifnab's true identity,
and the role Pryan was to play in the Sartan's Grand Plan. He also makes
startling discoveries about what really happened to the Sartan on this world
as well as the gleaming cities they left behind.

Why are the Tytans destroying Pryan's Mensch, and why do they seek the
citadel? Will Haplo become a reluctant participant in the rescue of Pryan's
civilization? Is Zifnab truly a powerful wizard or just an old man possessing
a "way with dragons?"