Mihte Lugh's Challenge: Can Jack defeat Balor of the Evil Eye.

Deep in the Celtic Underworld, a group of Grithods wake Jack in the middle of the night. So urgent is the call to attend the Oracle, Hadi drags him along without him dressing. The Oracle, Jack’s master, sets him his final test. He is in the final months of his three-year apprenticeship under Hadi. If he fails, he cannot to return to see his family.

Together with his old dreamtime friends, Haw-Stick and Rowan-Cap the Oracle sends them on an apparently pointless, but perilous journey. Sent without provisions or weapons they have to cross the desert and the ocean to the Isles of Goibhniu. That is a place high in the sky and is very different from the forest of Anderida where his friends come from. Their mission is to rendezvous with a Grithod princess, who will guide them to meet someone called Vulcan inside a volcano. After that, it is too scary to tell you.

Jack and his brother’s undertake the most hair-raising and arduous journey in their lives. They meet many characters from the darkest pages of Celtic mythology. They struggle through a series of disasters before Jack realises what his mission is, and how he might be able to utilise his paranormal powers.

As they travel through the Celtic Underworld, they are forever in danger. They meet thraldom, giants, man-eaters and a creature more fearful than your scariest nightmares. Only Jack’s latent skills in magination can ward off the evil that Jack’s party face, but is that enough?

Genre: Dark Fantasy, Adventure, Paranormal, Middle Grade