Song of Time

Song of Time is the eighth Magic novel. It was published by HarperPrism in June 1996. It was written by Teri McLaren (a.k.a. Teri Williams).

Blurb
The pieces to a vast, mysterious, and ancient puzzle come together to form the secret society known as the "Circle," but when Cheyne, a young archaeologist, becomes determined to solve the ancient riddle and find the Armageddon Clock before the Beast of the Hours awakes.

Brothers' War
During the Brothers' War, Mishra leads an army of wizards against his brother Urza. Urza summons a cockatrice but can't control it. Mishra calls in his elite wizards, a group of songmages called The Circle. They try to kill the cockatrice, but there is a traitor in their midst who screws up the ritual, so they can only trap it. Mishra is delighted though, charging the head songmage, known as The Collector, with crafting a song that can release and control the creature. Knowing that the release of the creature will mean Armageddon, the mage actually makes a song that will use the crystals in a magical valley called the Chimes to kill the creature upon its release. But the traitor in the circle, called The Raptor, comes in and kills him before he can write all the instructions down correctly.

Post-Ice Age Terisiare
The last member of the Circle, an archaeologist named Javin and his adopted son Cheyne, are excavating a site which they hope is the final resting place of the Collector. They stumble on another corpse, which holds a totem with symbols on it similar to a totem Cheyne has. This triggers Cheyne to go and find out the truth about his birth parents. While investigating in the local city of Sumifa, he befriends, a down-on-his-luck songmage called Ogwater. Ogwater agrees to guide Cheyne to the Chimes, where the local elves might be able to translate the symbols on the two totems. First they go and buy a map though. With Claria, a descendant of the Collector, they travel to the Chimes. They pass through an orc kingdom, a selkie kingsdom and an ice-monster kingdom. All the while they are followed by local mobb boss Riolla, who is working for the Raptor. The Raptor's minions get their hands on the various artifacts of the Circle that the heroes had found or inherited and release the cockatrice. But Ogwater has recovered his own magical gems from the orc-, selkie- and Rigida kingdoms and starts fighting it with songmagic. In the end Riolla, his former lover, gives him the last of his artifacts back and he is able to defeat the cockatrice.

Planned trilogy
Teri McLaren wrote a sequel to Song of Time, called "Shadows of Time" which would expand on the Rigida Beasts. It was never published, due to a change in ownership of the series from HarperPrism to Wizards of the Coast. A planned second sequel (making it a trilogy) was never written.