A KING'S RANSOM BY author Ronald G. Patterson is the first in a five-volume fantasy series set in the historic European Middle Ages. Penumbria is a kingdom in chains, ruled by the cruel regent, Duke Botewulf Blagden. In the midst of the suffering, a lonely young thief named Dava Bruna's son, broken-hearted and facing slow death by infection, decides to take his own life in the sterile desert of the Endless Emptiness. While journeying to his doom, he encounters a group of strange travelers, led by an enigmatic barefoot peasant called Lamion. The peasant turns out to be the missing king returned from exile. Lamion takes on Dava as his personal squire. The sojourners follow the king across Penumbria and up Mount Greyashe to the lair of the Duke Regent. The confrontation will either prove Lamion's claim or cost him his life ... perhaps both. But releasing his subjects from the shackles of slavery will certainly demand - A KING'S RANSOM.
