Black Avaia
Black Avaia is a horrific, terrifying, and bloodthirsty enemy of the light. Chilling imagery is effectively used for its signature sensory detail. “Soundlessly, a terror against the sky, razored claws extended straight for Jennifer. Black Avaia, putrescent death in the air, returning to claim her victim for a second time.” The lack of sound accompanying an attack by a big black bird would be startling enough, but the lack of a warning signal would undercut the ghastly quality of the sharp claws bared for the attack. It is that reference to “putrescent death” that causes heads to look upward: the Black Avaia may be silent and deadly, but its smell of rotting corpses makes a surprise attack all but impossible.
Darien, Darkness and Choice
At the center of the narrative is the darkness of that titular road, questions of the existence of a free will, and Darien. Darien is, of course, all too well that he is the centerpiece of this vortex. “Don’t you see? The Light has turned away, and now you have as well. Choice? I have none! I am of the Dark that extinguishes the Light—and I know where to go!” The imagery expressed in this outburst is genuinely the thematic core of the narrative. In many ways, the book becomes a meditation on the contention by Darien that not only does he not have actual free will to make a choice, but nobody does because the whole concept is an illusion.
Camelot
“He saw Lancelot…drop to one knee, just out of reach of the advancing demon…level a scything blow of his sword at the demon’s leg…But nimbly, for all its grotesque, worm-infested ugliness, the demon of the grove spun away from the thrust. With terrifying speed, he shaped a new sword arm and, even as the weapon coalesced, launched a savage blow downward against the sprawling man.” The Arthurian element does not even seriously enter the story until the second novel. By that time, the first entry in the series has established its milieu firmly within the Tolkien topography. As a result, imagery pitting Lancelot against a worm-infested demon with starfish-like regenerative sword arms seems like magic is gone extreme and Merlin is nowhere to be found.
