Jedit (novel)

Jedit is the second novel in the first Legends Cycle. It continues the story which started in Johan and concluded in Hazezon. It was written by Clayton Emery and published in December 2001. The first Legends Cycle is the post-rev retelling of the comic Legend of Jedit Ojanen.

Blurb
Lost in the pages of history.

In a time that made legends ... In a world separated from the rest of the cosmos by an ancient war ... A warrior—half-man, half-tiger—embarks on a perilous adventure that will decide the fate of a continent.

Even the desert sands cannot erase the story of Jedit Ojanen, one of the characters from the Magic Legends card set.

Plot
Johan has crossed the Sukurvia on drake back and has almost reached the oasis of Efrava, when the exhausted drake crashes on the sand. Johan is saved from a sand wurm attack by Jedit Ojanen, a young tiger man who has awaited his father, Jaeger, since he left their homeland. Efravan law, however, prohibits access to strangers, and Johan and Jedit are escorted to the village elders, where Johan is promptly imprisoned for later execution, much to Jedit's dismay. After much debating, Jedit's friend Hestia asks to postpone Johan's execution, since she and Jedit will watch over him. Johan is free to roam Efrava in the company of the two tigers, all the while studying the lay of the land for his future conquest. Meanwhile, Jedit's mother, the seer of the tribe, has a vision of the Prophecy of One, None, and Two, which reveals to her that Johan is an evil man. When Jedit, Hestia, and Johan return to the village, the wizard is once again imprisoned for execution. However, he manages to free himself and flees the oasis, followed by Jedit, who wants to know the truth about his father's fate.

The two manage to once again cross the desert and reach the city of Palmyra. Johan lies to Jedit, telling him that Jaeger helped the Tirras army in its war against the evil Adira Strongheart and Hazezon Tamar, who killed the tiger. In order to exact his revenge, Johan casts a disguise spell on Jedit, making him look like a barbarian, and orders a witch to cast another spell to increase the tiger's bloodlust. The furious Jedit is then unleashed on Hazezon and Adira but, during the fight, the two spells start to conflict one with the other, dazing Jedit and permitting the Robaran Mercenaries to reveal to him that Jaeger was in fact their good friend.

Jedit, mad at Johan's betrayal, pursues the fleeing man and, when he catches him, seeing that Johan has Jaeger's medallion, understands that the tyrant killed his father. Jedit almost kills Johan, but the wizard summons several Beasts of Bogardan in the Palmyran market. In the ensuing fight, Johan manages to escape in the Western Wastes. Here, he has a vision sent by the mysterious Shauku, who invites Johan to her library, where she has tomes detailing the tigermen of Efrava.

After the fight at the market, Jedit is enlisted in Adira's Circle of Seven and the group starts to follow Johan's trail. When they reach the Great Wall at the end of the desert, Hazezon shifts them atop the mountain range, while he will remain behind, preparing the city for the inevitable return of Johan. Meanwhile, the evil wizard travels with his entourage to Buzzard's Bay, where he learns the location of Shauku's castle, deep in the pinelands of Arboria, from a local sage (promptly killed).

Still following Johan's trail, Adira, Jedit, and the other Seveners reach Buzzard's Bay, where Johan's minions accuse them of killing the local sage. A fire starts in the subsequent riot, but when the Robarans help the mariners put out the fire, they quickly are pardoned, since it is now obvious that the real perpetrator of the murder is Johan. The Robarans find passage on a vessel, but soon they are attacked by corsairs hired by Johan. After a fight between the two ships and the summoning of a sea serpent, the mercenaries find themselves with dwindling numbers, shipwrecked on a rock in the middle of the sea. They are saved by Beckoner and the Born of the Beck tribe, who have journeyed from their distant home after hearing Jedit swimming. Finally, the mercenaries are brought to shore, ready to once again follow Johan.

Meanwhile, the wizard and his entourage have reached Shauku's castle, which is little more than a ruin. Inside, Johan finds a book on the Efravans written in an unknown language; Shauku, with the excuse of casting a translating spell, casts a command enchantment to Johan, binding the wizard to her will. Sensing something strange with his host, Johan follows Shauku in the castle bowels, where he finds a huge cavern, with a Cosmic Horror imprisoned. Near it stands a vampire, the real form of Shauku, who reveals to Johan that her library was a sham, devised only to bring the mage to her in order to enslave him and rule all of Jamuraa as the real power behind the Tirras emperor. Johan is then trapped in an amber prison near the horror.

In Arboria, Adira, Jedit, and the Seven befriend the pinefolk, who have no love for Shauku and her Akron Legionnaires. The group manages to infiltrate the dungeons of Shauku's castle, where they too find the cosmic horror and Johan's prison. The Robarans intend to free the cosmic horror, in order to let it have its revenge against Shauku, but before they can do it, Shauku and her legionnaires attack. During the fight, Adira inadvertently frees Johan from his prison who, having read the mind of the horror and its intention of calling a Falling Star down on the castle, promptly flees the fight. After Jedit incapacitates Shauku, the Robarans and the pinefolk quickly follow Johan's example, escaping the castle just as the falling star strikes.

Having survived the destruction of Shauku's castle, Adira, Jedit, and the remaining Seveners prepare to return home and stop Johan's plan of conquest.

Source Sample
Jedit (sample)