Twenty years ago two friends spent a holiday deep in the woods of northern Vermont beside a wide and fathomless lake...They had come to learn the nine levels of magic from a master magician. Tom Flanagan had come to protect his friend. But he was found to have such powers and talent for evil that he was the natural heir to Shadow Land, the domain deep in the isolated countryside, where the magician held his court.As the summer unfolded and Tom learned the depth and breadth of his powers, his reluctance to use them grew. But in order to survive himself, he has to make the choice of sacrificing friendship and fear or taking on the challenge of the master - a battle that must result in the triumph of either the magician or the reluctant apprentice, and finally in the destruction of the loser.