I am puzzled by some things about the sword/s, so I thought I'd throw them out there and see if anyone has any ideas. The first is, on page 482 of The Sorceress, where it says that Dee had been searching for Clarent for 500 years. "It was a quest that had taken him all over the world and into the Shadowrealms......And he had finally found it almost where it started. One of the first places he'd looked for the blade was under the Altar stone at Stonehenge..." Why then in The Magician, when Dee convinces Josh to accompany him after encountering Nidhogg and the Disir, does he just leave Clarent in the street? Josh tells him that he's left it and needs to retrieve it, but Dee says, "Trust me, you don't want to return for it," (p. 340) and drives away. Why wouldn't he throw a bit more fire at the Disir in order to help Josh retrieve it so that he could get his hands on it right then and there?

Here's another: At the end of The Sorceress, Dee lies on his back and brings Clarent and Excalibur near each other. They are inexplicably drawn to each other, and then they unite into one sword. Yet when Josh touched Excalibur's hilt with Clarent's blade at the car yard in The Magician, nothing like this happened. We even hear that Mars used to wear both swords at once, and there was no mention of them uniting then. Another thing: When Josh grabbed Excalibur while holding Clarent after the battle with Dee at the car yard, he felt great pain and the hand holding Clarent started to bleed. What was that about? Why can Dee and Mars hold both swords but not Josh?

Curiously, when Dee retrieves Excalibur from the moat at the car yard in The Sorceress, he lies on his back and holds the sword to his chest. Later, he does the same thing with Clarent when he takes it from the grass at the end of the book (after Josh has thrown it at him); he lies on his back and holds Clarent on his chest. (In both cases, he's also described as being in mud.) What's going on there? Is each sword somehow identifying Dee in this way? Does this need to happen before the swords can unite? Are the swords perhaps seeking out Dee?

Here's another interesting parallel: On pages 336-7 of The Magician, Josh's arm is wounded by the Disir; "The next swipe struck his bare arm between the shoulder and elbow. Clarent managed to nudge the sword at the last instant, so it was only the flat of the blade, rather than the razor-sharp edge, that hit him. Instantly, his entire arm went numb from shoulder to fingertips and he felt a sudden wash of nausea from the pain, the fear and the sudden realization that he was going to die. Clarent fell from his grasp and clattered to the ground." On page 481 of The Sorceress, Dee suffers a similar injury after Josh throws Clarent at him: "The Magician sat up slowly, cradling his right arm. It felt numb from fingertip to shoulder, where it had taken the full force of the blow from Clarent. He thought it might be broken." Not sure if there is any significance there...

Any thoughts?

Or is there more to it than just the danger of facing the Disir? Does Dee know that Clarent has powers that Josh doesn't understand?

Perhaps they hold too much power for a mortal to handle them both or to unite them and that somehow the swords "know" who is handling them.

I'd missed that connection - I'd intended re-reading but haven't had time, must re-read before April though when The Necromancer comes out - but it's an interesting idea, what does Dee have that the swords need, I wonder.

I wonder whether Clarent has scruples so that it tries to cause the least injury, so numbing rather than severing for instance. OK, I know that's a little crazy