Dark Quetzal

Dark Quetzal is a fantasy novel by British writer Katherine Roberts, first published in 2003 by The Chicken House. It is the final book in The Echorium Sequence and is the sequel to Crystal Mask, set 11 years after the events of that book. The main characters are Kyarra, Frazhin and Yashra's daughter who was raised as a singer, and Night Plume, a quetzal (half-man, half-bird) who has grown up under Frazhin's control. Plot introduction Dark Quetzal is set in the world of the Isle of Echoes where the Singers live in The Echorium. The Singers have many special abilities, the most important of which is knowledge of the Songs of Power: Challa for sleep, Kashe for laughter, Shi for sadness, Aushan for fear and Yehn for death. All Singer children, called novices, learn these Songs, but if their voices do not last into adulthood they receive a mild form of Yehn which makes them forget the Songs. The Singers can also farlisten to hear over great distances, an ability enhanced by the bluestone which the Isle is made up of, and hear truth. The Singers help to keep peace on the mainland, and produce treaties to protect Half Creatures - the half-human beings with knowledge of the Songs, which include merlee (fish people), naga (water snake people), quetzal (bird people) and centaurs (horse people). During the novel Song Quest, set thirty one years before Dark Quetzal, the Singers encountered a powerful enemy in Khizpriest Frazhin, who harnessed the powers of a strange black crystal called the khiz to manipulate people's thoughts and memories. He attempted to destroy the Echorium by kidnapping a novice, Rialle, and was only stopped by the efforts of another novice, Kherron, who had originally been taken in by Frazhin. Although thought dead for many years, he returned eleven years before Dark Quetzal, joining with Lady Yashra of the Harai to kidnap street children and enslave centaurs in an attempt to build a Khizalace school of song to rival the Echorium. They were stopped by Rialle's novice son Renn and Shaiala, a girl raised by centaurs, and it appeared that Frazhin was drowned by naga while trying to escape. Lady Yashra was captured and sung Yehn, and her unborn child by Frazhin was raised as a normal novice of the Echorium. However, suspicions are raised when first Rialle, then Frazhin's daughter Kyarra, go missing. Plot summary