Seaward is the story of Cally and Westerly.

Westerly is followed by unknown pursuers in the land that is the setting for Seaward. Witnessing the murder of his mother and haunted by the disappearance of his father he escapes into this strange land and thinks himself still pursued by his worldly attackers. He journeys seaward away from those who seek him. On his journey he is drawn into the world of the Lady Taranis and a deadly game of chess, played out by real armies on a board that is the landscape of her domain. Escaping from her first attempt at entrapment Westerly befriends Lugan who guides him to travel westwards towards the sea. Again Taranis tries to prevent him in his quest, but he escapes with Lugan's help.

Cally sees her father taken from her home as he battles with illness. Her mother then travels to be with him. While her mother is away Cally is haunted by her wordless singing. Seeking refuge in her parent's room the sound becomes oppressive and malevolent; Cally passes through the mirror and into the land of Seaward. Immediately she meets Taranis' people and Stonecutter who seeks to prevent Cally from travelling. Befriended and aided by Ryan, Stonecutter's wife, she escapes from Taranis' grip and travels to the sea.

Both of them journeying, Cally and Westerly meet and we are transported through the land of Taranis towards the sea. As they travel Cally and Westerly meet many who aid them as Taranis seeks to prevent them reaching their goal. We again meet Lugan and new allies in Snake and Peth, a strange stick-like creature who ultimately gives his life so that they may complete their journey.

Finally Cally and Westerly reach the sea and there they find Taranis and Lugan, Life and Death, inseparable and echoes of Cally and Westerly's own world. They are presented with the choice to go to their parents in the land of the Tir Na n'Og, the ever young. Cally, the Selkie girl, swims with others of her kind, of Ryan's kind and of her mother's kind. Westerly remembers the promise to find his father. But their destinies are to intertwine in a world other than that of Lugan and Taranis and they choose neither the eternal sleep of the dead or to rejoin the parents in the land of the Tir Na n'Og but choose to go home.

I remember being very nervous when first holding Seaward, on publication day in my market-town book shop. I raced home, bounded up to my room, shut the door and entered the world of Seaward and Cally and Westerly.

Nervous? well yes I was. This was the first book since Silver on the Tree and the end of the DR series. Four years later I was now a young adult, eighteen years old and still hooked on the DR books. Would I enjoy Seaward as much? Would it be similar to the DR books or totally different? Would I like it at all? After all time had moved on and so had I. I delved in. I wasn't disappointed and was swept along with Cally and Westerly and the characters like Lugan and Ryan and Peth.

It is perhaps only years later and having re-read Seaward several times that I can perhaps see that I did understand more of the underlying story than I remember at the time. For Seaward is different. It deals with a quest as do all the DR books. It also deals with the battle between good and evil, though not starkly, in the battle between life and death. But there is a distinct sadness here and a yearning for lost loved ones and I remember this sadness. I particularly remember the scene at the end of the book where Cally, the Selkie girl, swims with others of her kind. But faced with the choice of joining her parents, she gives it all up to face the realities of growing up in the world, like the rest of us.

Of all Susan Cooper's books I know less about Seaward and the background of its writing than the others. I think perhaps that there are some clues to be found in Dreams and Wishes, but I think that I will look no further and enjoy the adventure contained within the covers; this is a really good book!