NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER For five hundred years the survivors of the Great Wars lived
peacefully in a valley sanctuary shielded by powerful magic from the dangerous outside world.
But the enchanted barriers have crumbled and the threat of annihilation looms large once more.
As he lay dying Sider Ament bearer of the last black staff and protector of the valley gave
stewardship of the powerful talisman to the young Tracker Panterra Qu. Now the newly anointed
Knight of the Word must take up the battle against evil wherever it threatens: from without
where an army of bloodthirsty Trolls is massing for invasion and from within where the Elf
king of Arborlon has been murdered his daughter stands accused and a heinous conspiracy is
poised to subjugate the kingdom. But even these affairs will pale beside the most harrowing
menace Panterra is destined to confront-a nameless merciless agent of darkness on a relentless
mission: to claim the last black staff . . . and the life of whoever wields it.
