A Knight of the Word

infobox Book |
name = A Knight of the Word
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Terry Brooks
illustrator =
cover_artist = Gerald Brom
country = United States
language = English
series = Word & Void series
genre = Dark Fantasy novel
publisher = Del Rey Books
release_date = 28 July 1998
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 352 pp
isbn = ISBN 0345379632
oclc = 38311956
preceded_by = Running with the Demon
followed_by = Angel Fire East

A Knight of the Word is the second novel in the "Word & Void series" by Terry Brooks, written as a prequel to his "Shannara" series. It was first published in 1998 by Ballantine's Del Rey division (ISBN 0-345-37963-2). The setting is primarily Seattle, Washington around Halloween in 2002, five years after the events of "Running with the Demon". The story follows John Ross as he attempts to leave his life in service to the Word, while Nest Freemark tries to restore his faith. It is followed by the novel "Angel Fire East".

Plot summary

John Ross, having failed on a mission from the Word in which fourteen school children were killed in San Sobel, California, tries to leave his life as a Knight of the Word behind him. He returns to the Fairy Glen in Wales to tender his resignation to the Lady, but she refuses to appear to him; instead, he meets the ghost of his ancestor, Owain Glyndwr, who tells him that the decision to give up being a Knight is not his to make. Frustrated, John returns to America, meets his beautiful girlfriend Stefanie and now works for a homeless center in Seattle. He ignores the infrequent dreams of a demon-haunted future, including one in which he kills his much-beloved boss, Simon Lawrence.

Lawrence is known locally as "the Wizard of Oz" because of his successful charity ventures in Seattle (AKA the Emerald City). He is being investigated for financial impropriety by a demon-influenced reporter named Andrew Wren. This demon is a changeling- during the day it works to subvert, and at night morphs into a giant hyena-like creature to feed on the homeless living in the ruins under modern Seattle.

Nest Freemark, now a 19-year-old college student, has returned to Hopewell, Illinois for the weekend before Halloween. She muses on events over the last five years, including her grandfather's death in the spring, Wraith's disappearance when she turned 18, and the fact that she is no longer in touch with most of her childhood friends (or John Ross). She has not used her magic in years and is unsure if she has it any longer. She travels with her twiggy sylvan companion, Pick, through the park and has an encounter with the tatterdemalion Ariel, a ghost-like messenger of the Word formed from the memories of dead children. Nest learns that John Ross is in need of her help and reluctantly agrees to fly to Seattle to talk to him. She is disturbed to learn that John is now especially vulnerable to falling to the side of the Void, and the Word has dispatched someone to kill him if this happens. This resounds with Nest, as she recalls that John admitting that he would have killed her five years ago if she had been turned to the Void.

Arriving in Seattle, Nest takes a walk at night with Ariel; they hear the demon hunting and killing people in the underground city, but Ariel won't let her pursue it. She meets with John the next day, but can't convince him to return to his duties as a Knight; however, she does cause changes in his dreams- now John also dreams about killing her. Nest also runs into O'olish Amaneh, the Word-serving Native American that she met five years before, and finds that he is the one sent to kill John if he should turn to the Void. That night, Ariel informs Nest that Boot, a sylvan in a local park, has seen the demon. Just as they're getting crucial information from Boot, the demon attacks them in its hyena form and kills Boot, his owl Audrey, and Ariel. It chases Nest through a nearby residential area, but she narrowly escapes on a bus. Later that same night, the demon sets fire to the homeless shelter and John and Stefanie rescue many tenants, but one of their coworkers is killed in the fire. John was exceedingly groggy and foggy-headed when Stefanie tried to wake him to help deal with the fire, and he's troubled by this.

The next day, Halloween, John and Nest meet. They share information and decide that Nest should leave town. Andrew Wren, in possession of (demon-provided) evidence that John and Simon are embezzling from the shelter, meets with John and leaves him with the suspicion that Simon is the demon. His suspicions are reinforced when Stefanie tells him that Simon has fired him, to distance himself from the scandal. John heads to a fund-raising event at the art museum and confronts Simon, who reveals himself as a demon, nearly kills John, and leaves him on the floor. John repents for faltering in his service to the Word and is once again infused with magic to heal and strengthen him. He searches for Simon with the intent to kill him, but just as he finds him, Nest intervenes. On the way out of town, she realized that Stefanie is actually the demon, because of parallels between Stefanie's actions and those of Nest's father (also a demon), not to mention the timing issues and other evidence that lead her to this truth. John realizes that he's been subtly led toward the Void ever since Stefanie came into his life, after San Sobel; as a shape-shifting demon, Stefanie forged documents to support the embezzlement accusations, attacked Nest and her friends in the park, set fire to the shelter to explain the wounds she'd sustained trying to kill Nest, lied about John being fired, and morphed into Simon at the museum so John would be tricked into killing the real, innocent Simon and completing his turn to the Void.

Finally, John confronts Stefanie at his apartment; afraid of his now-returned magic, the demon leaps out a window. Faced with the demon's onslaught when it crashes to the street below, the waiting Nest finds that Wraith has not left her- he lives within her and Nest can assume his form in response to threatening dark magic. Together, she and John destroy Stefanie. Nest returns to Hopewell, and John resumes his service as a Knight of the Word, once again using his dreams of the future to change things in the present and keep the Void at bay.

Characters

* Freemark, Nest
* Ross, John
* O'olish Amaneh
* Winslow, Stefanie
* Wraith
* Lawrence, Simon
* Wren, Andrew
* Hapgood, Ray
* Ariel
* Boot
* Audrey
* Pick
* Benjamin
* Heppler, Robert
* The Lady
* Glyndwyr, Owain

External links

* [http://www.terrybrooks.net/ Terry Brooks official site]