The Neverfear

The third installment in the Impossible Creatures series is set in the Glimouria Archipelago, a hidden cluster of magical islands where mythical creatures live. Christopher Forrester, a boy from the non-magical world known as the Outerlands, lives on the islet of Glimt alongside his friend Anya Argen, the former Princess of Dousha.

The story opens when Christopher helps deliver a unicorn foal by cutting its tangled umbilical cord with his sphinx-given obsidian sword. When the golden newborn touches him, a flash of green-gold light surges through his body, and he senses the foal's emotions through an invisible thread of energy. The Palace of Glimt, owned by Fidens Nighthand, a fearless warrior known as a Berserker, serves as a refuge for endangered magical creatures. Nighthand runs it with Irian Guinne, a scholar who descends partly from nereids, or sea spirits. He secretly plans to propose to Irian at the annual Midsummer Feast. Other inhabitants include Jacques, a tiny jaculus dragon and Christopher's self-appointed companion, and Ratwin, Nighthand's loyal ratatoska, a small squirrel-like creature.

At the feast, the pirate Vigo Nex arrives uninvited with alarming news: masked bandits wearing ouroboros bracelets, each depicting a snake consuming its own tail, burned a village and wielded a Tiger that leaped from a hand mirror, killed an old man, and dragged the body back into the glass. Just as Nighthand kneels to propose, a behemoth, a massive tusked sea creature, charges from the ocean. Christopher meets its eyes and again feels the green-gold flash, sensing the creature's pain rather than aggression. It approaches him calmly before the connection breaks.

On the Island of Manticores, the villain Astor Morax commands the Astorians, a network of bandits each bound by an ouroboros bracelet that can kill its wearer on his command. His lieutenant Carla Venasque harbors a personal grudge against Nighthand. Morax announces he has located Nighthand and, by extension, the Immortal child: a toddler named Teren whose soul is a reincarnation carrying the accumulated wisdom of thousands of lives.

Anya's father Argus Argen plants fendthorn, a magical barrier plant also called the Hercules thorn, around Glimt. Only designated key holders can pass through it. Teren's mother Senan arrives, asking Nighthand to protect her son while she tends her wounded mother; her father was killed by the Astorians. Argus accompanies Senan, and Nighthand stays to guard Teren while Irian sails aboard the Neverfear, Nighthand's boat, to the City of Scholars with Christopher and Anya to report the attacks to the Flying Senate, the Archipelago's governing body.

In a narrow alley, masked Astorians ambush them. Darius Alkov, the bandits' red-haired captain, and Carla seize Irian at knifepoint. A ransom note demands golden whiskers from a Cerberus, a giant three-headed dog, and warns that if they tell Nighthand, Irian dies. Christopher and Anya resolve to complete the tasks alone. Irian is locked in a tidal cage on a remote beach where the water rises higher each day, with Koo, Anya's young gagana, a bird that communicates through gestures, hidden in her jacket as her only companion. Carla reveals she once loved Nighthand, who laughed at her feelings and later abandoned her.

On Great Caruta, an island of giants, Christopher and Anya find the Cerberus. Anya lulls it to sleep with whistling and dancing, but it wakes when Christopher pulls a whisker. He summons his mind-linking power, connecting with all three heads simultaneously and nearly losing his identity before plucking the remaining whiskers.

The second demand requires the Belt of Hippolyta, an ancient golden girdle granting strength, which Vigo wore at the feast. En route to Vigo's stronghold, the sphinx Naravirala visits Christopher and names his power the Glimourie Light, a rare gift connecting the earth's force with the mind's skill. She warns that using it to dominate creatures will destroy him and tells him to anchor himself by remembering the people he loves.

At Vigo's desert party, their plan to drug him fails. Anya challenges Vigo to a pirate duel for the belt, fighting his deputy Skadi Finnesse, a half-Berserker warrior. Anya's twin rapiers burst into flame during the fight, and she melts through Skadi's blade to win.

The final task demands a golden apple from the orchard of the Hesperides, a legendary garden on the island of Polytemus. A serpent guards the trees, many of which produce deadly effects. The serpent bites Anya, and a fire apple ignites the golden apple tree, destroying every fruit. Christopher saves Anya with antivenom, but a note declares they have failed. He remembers that Hercules stole three apples long ago; others must still exist. Anya uses her loquillan, a prophetic silver disk, which reveals a golden apple as the prize in the Race of Thieves on the island of Ceren. To reach it in time, Ratwin trades her horn for powdered wind, a magical propellant, and a pair of ankle-strap flying wings.

At the race, Christopher uses the Light to bond with a captive Ceryneian hind, a golden-antlered deer. Mid-race, he nearly loses himself in the hind's panicked mind but anchors himself by summoning images of his loved ones, confirming Naravirala's teaching. Anya trips the leading rival with spider thread, and Christopher crosses the finish line first. He claims the apple and frees the hind.

The final note demands Nighthand come alone to rescue Irian. On Glimt, Christopher realizes every task corresponds to one of the twelve Labors of Hercules, and the Astorians have been collecting materials to form a compound that destroys fendthorn. The entire scheme was designed to strip Glimt of its defenders, break the barrier, and seize Teren. They confess to Nighthand, who entrusts Teren to Christopher and departs alone.

Ten Astorians arrive and destroy the fendthorn. Christopher uses the Light to summon every creature on the island to defend the palace. In a series of battles, the creatures defeat the bandits one by one. Anya fights Darius in the library with her flaming rapiers, defending Teren. Wounded beneath her ribs, she knocks him unconscious with help from Meri, the Palace of Glimt's assistant librarian—a small mouse who stabs a needle through Darius's palm.

Before his defeat, Darius summons the Tiger from a mirror. It pins Christopher and speaks with Morax's voice, demanding the Immortal. Christopher pretends to surrender, secretly substituting a leshoki, a shapeshifter that stowed away on the boat at Polytemus, disguised as Teren. When Morax boards the Neverfear, the behemoth rams the boats while the leshoki drops its disguise and escapes. Christopher flies to safety on the ankle wings Ratwin acquired earlier, and the Gardai, the Archipelago's naval force, surround the Astorian vessels. Morax goes down with his ship, but his fate remains uncertain.

On Paraspara, Nighthand finds Irian chained in the tidal cage as the tide rushes in. Carla traps him inside, but Koo attacks Carla and delivers Nighthand's blade through the bars. Nighthand frees Irian. On the beach, he proposes with a ring of twisted seaweed, and she accepts.

In the aftermath, Argus reveals that Anya's late mother was of Berserker kin, explaining her extraordinary combat instincts. A young Astorian's ouroboros bracelet kills him before he can reveal Morax's plans, strongly suggesting Morax survived. Senan and Teren move permanently to Glimt. At the wedding, officiated by Naravirala, Christopher rides the mother unicorn down the aisle. That evening, he and Anya sit at the water's edge, agreeing to face whatever comes. A piece of the wrecked Neverfear washes ashore, and Christopher picks it up, laughing: material for rebuilding, echoing Ratwin's lesson that each version of the ship comes back stronger than the last.