Prospero in Hell (59 page)

Then, the Hellwinds swept past us, and their roar became muted, like distant thunder. The shores were devoid of life, as far as my eye could see, and on the bridge there remained only four of us.

Except for Gregor, Mab, myself, and Erasmus, my family was lost.

Here ends Part Two

To be continued in Part Three:

P
ROSPERO
R
EGAINED

In which we finally meet the Dread Magician Prospero, and Miranda learns the truth about many things.

Thank you to Mark Whipple, Dave Eckstein, and Catherine Rockwood, without whose encouragement, this novel would have been abandoned in its infancy.

To Von Long, Diana Hardy, Erin Furby, Kirsten Edwards, Bill Burns, Dave Coffman, Jeff Lyman, Jessie Harris, Donna Royston, Robin Buehler, and especially Don Schank, for their support and advice, and to Danielle Ackley-McPhail and the Yesterday’s Dreamers, for all their useful ideas concerning the craft of writing itself.

To James Hyder, without whom this book would contain two copies of Chapter Seven and none of Chapter Eight.

To my wise editor, Jim Frenkel, and my noble agent, Richard Curtis.

To Lisa at Mama Lisa’s World (
www.mamalisa.com/world
), for her wonderful collection of Italian Lullabies, and to Ernestine Shargool, for her beautiful translations.

To George Bernard Shaw, whose title
Don Juan in Hell
, this one echoes.

And, most important, to my mother, Jane Lamplighter, without whose selfless devotion to her grandchildren this book literally could not have been written.

L. Jagi Lamplighter lives with her husband and children in northern Virginia, where she’s working on
Prospero Regained,
book three of Prospero’s Daughter. For more information, visit her Web site at
www.ljagilamplighter.com.