Story 3 Overview
Volume 3, "Death Gate Cycle"
**FIRESEA**
by Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman
published by Bantam Spectra
cover art by Keith Parkinson

Night of the Living Dead: Abarrach, World of Stone...

Alfred literally drops in on Haplo as the Patryn travels through
Death's Gate on the way to Abarrach. After being tossed by the
Kicksey Winsey into the Maelstrom on Arianus, Alfred drifted
through Death's Gate until he encountered, with a thump, Haplo's
dragon ship.

As the two unhappy passengers travel through Death's Gate, a
strange phenomenon occurs, and Haplo and Alfred find themselves
living through each other's experiences. Much to Haplo's chagrin,
he finds it more and more difficult to hate Alfred, while Alfred looks
upon Haplo with considerable respect and inward shame at the terrible
life the Patryn had endured imprisoned within the Labyrinth.

When "Dragon Wing" docks in a harbor of the molten lava sea,
Haplo and Alfred meet the last tribe of Sartan to flee the frigid, dying
land above the caverns. The leader of the group, Prince Edmund, explains
that the Colossus, a great pillar of stone, used to serve as a heat conduit to
the surface, providing a viable environment for Mensch and Sartan alike.
For some unknown reason, the Colossus had ceased functioning, and the
surface above suffered for it.

Now, the Sartan, using the unfortunate living dead among them, wage
war with each other, fighting for the dwindling food supplies and crops
that still barely survive within the caverns. Kleitus, Dynastic Majesty of
Necropolis, the only city left in Abarrach, plots to reap all the resources
for himself by hunting down any surviving tribes beyond the city walls.

When Kleitus learns of Haplo and Alfred, obvious strangers to this
world, he reasons that the old myths about a gateway to other worlds must
be true, and he sets out to find Death's Gate and escape from this molten realm.
Kleitus isn't the only one looking for escape. The living dead, known as
lazar, yearn for release from their bodily confines. Though fairly dull and
mindless, the lazar still envy and hate the living, so they inflict their fate on
unsuspecting Sartan whenever they can by changing them into lazars upon
death (whether death is achieved naturally or with the lazar's help!).

As Haplo and Alfred learn the unholy truth about Abarrach, they
stumble into a miraculous discovery which could, quite possibly, either
heal the four realms or totally obliterate the entire Death Gate universe.

Will the duo escape the World of Stone with this knowledge or learn,
first-hand, what it is like to exist in dying flesh? Will Kleitus succeed in
finding Death's Gate and spread the "gospel" of necromancy to other worlds?
Will the Sartan of Abarrach once again become beings of great power or
cease to exist on the molten planet?