The hag plunged him into the cold darkness of the canal's current and then tossed him easily onto the muddy bank.  Cletis gasped for air and cried for help.  But the forest was empty.  No one had ever lived to tell of seeing the witch.  Taking his arm, she dragged him to the back porch of the broken hovel in which she lived.  There, under the light of a single bulb, she turned to Cletis, revealing the fleshy and pocked face that all but covered the emerald green eyes that peered back at him - eyes that knew him, pierced him.  Eyes that would lure him back to her time and again, enticing him into a labyrinth of ancient prophecy, time travel, magic, and danger... and a revelation of his true identity.