Erak's Ransom

            Rescue!The skandian leader has been captured by a dangerous desert tribe.The rangers,and young Will,apprentice to the Ranger Halt,are sent to free him.But the desert is like nothing these warriors have seen before.Strangers in a strange land,they are brutalized by sandstorms,beaten by the unrelenting heat,tricked by one tribe that plays by its own rules,and surprisingly,befriended by another.Like a desert mirage,nothing is as it seems.Yet one thing is constant:the bravery of the rangers.

            Then suddenly, the mysterious ranger named Halt passed a note to Baron Arald, the lord of the Redmont fiefdom and then the choosing day was over. The boy was curious about what the note had said so he went up to the Barons tower after avoiding the patrol guard while climbing the stone tower like a spider. He opened the window and slipped inside unseen. Then he saw the note and reached for it and when a hand suddenly reached out and seized him by the arm, he had been caught...where had he come from? He was sure there had been nobody else in the room. And there had been no sound of a door opening. Then he would remember how the ranger would wrap himself in that strange mottled gray_green cloak and melt into the background and blend in with the shadows until he was invisible.

            The king was left with no choice except death or banishment.Here is part of the text,"halt."he spoke firmly,feeling every eye in the room upon him."former king's ranger of the redmont fief,i hereby,as lord of this realm of araluen,declare you to be banished from all my lands and holdings""you are forbidden ,under pain of death to set foot in this kingdom again..."he hesitated,seeing now the sadness in halt's eyes,the pain of the graying ranger could no longer hide.then he completed his statement:"...for the period of one year fom this day on."

            The fate of Arulen rests in the hands of two young adventurers: the Ranger Will and his warrior friend, Horace.And now the time has come for this onetime apprentice to grow up and protect the one he loves.Will Barton has been keeping track of Alyss,the girl he liked for the past years in the castle with three other kids:Horace,George,and Jenny. The Adventure will never end for Will.