Down the Upturned Tree

It's been three months, and there's been no change in Chloe's condition.

Her brother Rob, whose life, and the lives of his actress mother, playwright father, and his godfather, Mac, have stopped cold. All of them are waiting... for something. For a change. If only something would happen. Either Chloe should wake up and live... or she should die. It's the coma, the waiting... it's killing them all slowly.

In need of a distraction, and finding that his parents are short on cash from Chloe's fancy nursing home, Rob takes a job on a local archeology dig, using his highly polished artistic skills to draw their highly secret find. It's not the greatest job... it's boring drawing and grunt work - but Rob is starting to find some really odd things at this archeology dig. Sure, they're unique and millions of years old... but they're...alive.

Outside the dig, Rob's met some really weird druid/New Agey types, too. And they seem to think it's all highly significant... and tied to his sister. What does what the archeologist is uncovering have to do with Rob and his family? How do the druids know so much? Should Rob trust them? Is there something going on at the archeology site that he should tell ...someone? And what about Chloe? Will the druid, Vetch, be able to wake her where she wanders? And does she want to come back?

Interweaving the classic Welsh myth of Taliesin and Ceridwen into a more modern tale, Catherine Fisher's Darkhenge explores the world of imagination, and the lines between it and reality. Chloe's emotions recreate her world. If we could live out our dreams, would we ever come away from them?