Tools

Tool Kit

If we've learned anything from all the DIY workshops we take at Home Depot, it's that you're only as good as your tools. There are a variety of tools in The Paladin Prophecy—on both the good side and the bad side.

Will brings his Swiss Army Knife with him wherever he goes. "It's not a weapon," he explains. "It's a toolbox" (13.49). And he doesn't use it as a weapon. He uses it to pry open the floorboards in his room, under which he discovers a secret passage to hide his cell phone. He also uses it to cut the ties around his hands when he is bound by the bad guys. Did they not think to frisk him? Of course they didn't.

The bad guys have tools, too, primary the Carver, which is often mentioned but not actually described until the end of the book. Lyle has one, and it is simply called a "hooked steel rod" (43.29). What's he going to do with that, crochet a scarf for Will? Well, what it does is act as a subtle knife, able to carve a hole between this world and the Never-Was—and that allows demons to come through into our world.

We'd rather have a scarf.

Both sides use their tools effectively, but Lyle's Carver backfires on him. The demon he welcomes into this world attacks him. Will is at least smart enough not to fall on his own knife.