Story 7 Overview
Volume 7, "Death Gate Cycle"
**INTO THE LABYRINTH**
by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman
published by Bantam Spectra
cover art by Stephen Youll, designed by Jamie Youll

Ultimate Power: The Seventh Gate

It has all come down to this: a battle of mammoth magical
proportions is brewing within the boundaries of the Labyrinth.
Inside the prison maze, the Patryn and Sartan races are fighting
for their lives not only against one another and the Labyrinth
itself, but against the darkest force of evil imaginable...the
dragon-snakes of Chelestra.

Drawn to the battleground by ancient fear and hatred, the
dragon-snakes, embodiment of the evil component of the Wave,
have come to feed on the powerful emotions emitted by the two
races. But the Wave struggles to correct Itself as the good dragons
of Pryan converge on the Labyrinth to join the epic battle.

As the forces of good and evil square off against one another in
the Labyrinth, another struggle is taking place outside the prison maze.
Haplo and Alfred must work together to decide not only the fate of their
races at war in the Labyrinth, but the future of the Mensch and the
sundered realms as well. Their task is to seal the titan forces inside
the Labyrinth and remove the demi-gods' meddling from the lives
and worlds of the Mensch forever.

Being removed from meddling is far from the mind of Lord Xar
whose mission is to collapse the four worlds back into a single planet.
Ignoring the possibility that multitudes of Mensch would perish should
he succeed, Xar remains on the hunt for the elusive Seventh Gate,
otherwise known as the Chamber of the Damned from which rejoining
would be done.

Haplo and Alfred must also find and use the Seventh Gate to close
forever Death's Gate, ultimately freeing the Mensch and saving the worlds
of Arianus, Pryan, Abarrach and Chelestra. It's a race they know they
must win, no matter what the victory may cost them personally.
Who will be the first to find and use the tremendous power of the Seventh
Gate and to what end? Is this Haplo's final chance to prove his loyalty to
Lord Xar, or will he ignore it for a questionable future once again locked
within the Labyrinth?

March 1995