Antrax / Terry Brooks.

"A Del Rey book."

Originally published: 2001.

The second in the Jerle Shannara trilogy. Led by the last Druid, Walker Boh, brave explorers travel across unknown seas in search of an elusive magic. But now it seems Walker and his team have been lured there for sinister reasons. Soon, they are separated but must each face the Antrax, a spirit that feeds off enchantment and traps the souls of men... Now in Antrax, as the crew aboard the airship Jerle Shannara is attacked by evil forces, the Druid's protege Bek Rowe and his companions are pursued by the mysterious Ilse Witch. Meanwhile, Boh is alone, caught in a dark maze beneath the ruined city of Castledown, stalked by a hungry, unseen enemy. For there is something alive in Castledown. Something not human. Something old beyond reckoning that covets the magic of Druids, elves, even the Ilse Witch. Something that hunts men for its own designs: Antrax. It is a spirit that commands ancient technologies and mechanical monsters, feeds off enchantment, and traps the souls of men. With the Jerle Shannara under siege and Antrax threatening the bold and unwary, the Ilse Witch finds herself face-to-face with a boy who claims to be the brother she last saw as an infant. Now a young man, Bek wields the magic of the wishsong and carries the Sword of Shannara upon his back. Unsure whether to trust Bek or to slay him, the Ilse Witch takes him prisoner. One has come pursuing truth, the other revenge. Yet both seek Walker Boh with the fate of the Four Lands hanging in the balance. Return to the world of beloved novelist Terry Brooks, where creatures drift up from the earth like mist, a hypnotic song can kill, a sword can cut through a veil of liesb6sand one man, the true heir of an ancient magic, must choose between betrayal and redemption.