"The Chosen were the caretakers of the Ellrys, the strange and wondrous tree that stood at the center of the Gardens—the tree, as the legends told, that served as protector against a primordial evil that had very nearly destroyed the Elves centuries ago, an evil that had been shut away from the earth since before the dawn of the old race of Men." Chapter 1, p. 1.

"The legend was not legend. The legend was life. Evil did indeed lie beyond a Forbidding that the Ellcrys maintained. Only she kept the Elven people safe. And now she was dying." Chapter 1, p. 6.

"If one of the Chosen were permitted to carry a seed of the tree to the source of her power, the Ellcrys might be reborn and the Forbidding invoked again." Chapter 2, p. 9.

"'Child, that you were mine,' he whispered. He stepped closer, reaching up to take...