What is the nature of fate? Is young Merlin destined to be a powerful wizard, or does he have a choice? These are the questions Merlin must answer as he travels with the deer woman Hallia to the Haunted Marsh where the marsh ghouls have begun a campaign of destruction. Or are the ghouls being manipulated by an even greater source of evil? An evil that seeks to destroy not the marsh, but Merlin himself?

Here, in the fourth installment of the Lost Years of Merlin, epic master storyteller T. A. Barron weaves a tale of humor, adventure, and surprise as Merlin unravels the mystery of the Haunted Marsh, meets a boy named Arthur, and travels through a mirror of mist that brings him face to face with his destiny.