As a street-dwelling, wall-scaling thief, Wilt’s life expectancy is dismally low. Outrunning bullies, evading capture, and providing food for himself and his younger friend, Higgs, is not a recipe for a long and healthy life. Yet Wilt has a significant advantage: the ability to read minds.
When Wilt is taken to the city of Remondis to fine-tune his skills, he doesn’t go willingly, but as captive to an intimidating bunch of guards, imperious Prefects, and rumors about “The Sisters,” the mysterious group of women in charge. At least his buddy Higgs is coming with him, though because of Higgs’ special talents as a “crafter,” their masters attempt to keep Higgs separated from Wilt.
Like Wilt, I can read your thoughts: a school to train children with magical abilities? I know that one! But forget Hogwarts; the forces that dwell beneath the surface in Remondis are far more terrifying that anything Voldemort could conjure up. While Thompson does not reveal all in this, the first book in the Wraith Cycle, the brush with these forces will leave you chilled long after the story ends.
Not all is darkness and drudgery in The Blood within the Stone. The special bond between Wilt and Higgs, their complementary skills and the yin and yang of their personalities, lends hope to the bleakness of the evil within the story and adds necessary moments of levity even as Wilt and Higgs suffer and struggle to determine who their real enemy is.
T.R. Thompson displays his own magical skill in The Blood Within the Stone as he describes the process of Wilt entering people’s minds and uncovering their secrets, motivations, and intentions. The vivid imagery of ropes entwining those who are connected in these “welds,” along with the obvious fun Thompson had in depicting the transformation of people into animal forms, makes this story a tantalizing introduction to the the Wraith Cycle.