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story identification - Childrens fantasy, blind monk leading boy who can control the elements


This is a book I read as a child, so sometime in the 1980's . It was actually a two part book series, both normal novel length. It was a swords and sorcery style setting.


Details are sketchy, but I'll give you what I can remember.


It centred around a boy on a quest against some demon-like villain wizard type character. At some stage a girl was kidnapped and they were off to rescue her ( fairly generic stuff) . I think the girl also had magic powers, healing I think.


This boy could control the weather or elements. He encounters a monk type character who ends up travelling with him and becomes a teacher of sorts. This monk is actually blind, but can still sense his surroundings, DareDevil style. ( I cannot remember if this was a magical ability or just something the monk had developed over time. ). I seem to remember this character had black, reptilian style eyes. There may have been more people travelling with them I don't recall.


I recall the encounter with the main enemy took place on the top of a mountain, this mountain had the top taken off so was perfectly flat. ( I hope I'm not getting muddled with a different book with this detail)


The baddie know the boy could only control the elements if he was exposed to them, so ended up sealing the room he was fighting in so the boy had no contact with the outside. He won through by using a dagger or sword to make a crack in the floor through the protection, giving him enough of a connection with the outside to use his powers. I /think/ he died during this battle, and the girl they were rescuing brought him back to life. ( Or maybe she dies, and was brought back to life somehow)



Answer




It's "Blade of the Poisoner" by Douglas Hill and the sequel, "Master of Fiends".


The group of super-powered individuals are called "Talents", the "Blind monk guy" is called "Scythe", his Talent is being able to see everything even though his eyes are just featureless black marbles. He's an expert swordsman who usually goes around disguised as a blind beggar/monk. There's a woman called "Archer" who has telekinesis; she can control her arrows so they always strike true.


There's a girl who can control people's minds - she uses part of her ability to lock away the protagonist's fear of what has been done to him by the bad guy in the first book.


And then there's Jarrel, the boy who can control elementals. He's the protagonist, and he hasn't come into his power yet. But the Demon-controlling "Master of Fiends" sends his minion "The Poisoner" to eliminate him, because elementals are the only thing that a demon is weak against. The Poisoner signs Jarrel's chest with his magic blade; the Letter he carved there will get bigger over the course of a month until it consumes Jarrel entirely. This is the quest of the first book, to defeat the Poisoner and destroy the blade so Jarrel will survive.


The Talents are given this quest by the Wizard Cryl, who knows that Jarrel's Elemental talent can defeat the Master of Fiends if he has a chance to grow into it.


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