Dark Companion

By: Andre Norton

Narrated by: Gail Shalan, Derek Shoales

In a future where humanity has scattered itself across the stars and Earth itself is now a dimly remembered place of legend, two worlds of near-supernatural strangeness challenge two naive but courageous heroes. The planet Beltane had been unscathed by the all-encompassing war of the four Sectors when Vere Collis and his friends were trapped by powerful explosions on the surface. Their leader was killed, but the group wandered for days underground to find a way to the surface. They emerged to find that they were the last human survivors on Beltane. Only strange and deadly mutant creatures now roamed the surface.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, Kilda's home planet had no place for her, so she took employment as a teacher and governess to two young children on the planet named Dylan. But she soon found that one of her charges has an invisible "dread companion" - and soon Kilda knows that the companion is not imaginary at all, as it leads her charges into an other-dimensional world resembling the legends of Faerie. Though the other world has unknown dangers on every hand, Kilda follows the children across the spatial barrier, knowing that she is their only hope. Two complete novels of two very different heroes battling alien and unknown evil, and fighting to protect the helpless in worlds that are wondrous, terrifying, and utterly alien.

©2005 Andre Norton; Dark Piper copyright 1968 by Andre Norton; Dread Companion copyright 1970 by Andre Norton (P)2021 Tantor

Dark Piper & Dread Companion

Dark Piper: Returning home after ten years of war, Griss Lugard found inhabitants of Beltane still immersed in the biological researches just as they had before the war. The destruction of the other worlds in the Confederation meant nothing to them, nor did they listen to Lugard's warnings of danger from a war fought to a devestating draw. Desperate soldiers with no home worlds to return to turned pirate looking for bases from which to raid.
Vere Collis and his nine young friends
go with Lugard exploring unknown desert caves and were safe underground when a series of explosions rocked Beltane, killing Lugard and sealing them in. In the days that followed, the small group battled fear and despair only to receive a shattering blow: all other human inhabitants on Beltane had mysteriously perished. Only strange and possibly hostile mutant creatures remained.
Dread Companion: Kilda took employment as a teacher and governess to two young children on the planet named Dylan. But she soon found that one of her charges has an invisible "dread companion"- and soon Kilda knows that the companion is not imaginary at all, as it leads her and her charges into an other - dimensional world resembling the legends of Faerie. Though the other world has unknown dangers on every hand, Kilda follows the children across the spatial barrier, knowing that she is their only hope.
Grandmaster Norton at her best!