466 pages
"Cole Randolph never meant to come to the Outskirts, but when his friends were kidnapped on Halloween he had to try to save them. Now he's trapped in a world that lies between wakefulness and dreaming, reality and imagination, life and death.
Cole's hunt for his lost friends has led him to the kingdom of Elloweer. Accompanied by new friends Mira, Twitch, and Jace, Cole teams up with the resistance movement and joins the search for Mira's sister Honor.
But Elloweer has grown unstable. A mysterious enemy is wiping out towns, leaving no witnesses or survivors. And an infamous rebel known throughout the kingdom as the Rogue Knight is upsetting the balance of power.
With enemies in pursuit, Cole and Mira must resort to a fascinating new kind of magic to protect themselves. Every move is filled with danger as Cole and his friends try to outwit the High King, who will stop at nothing to regain what he has lost." -Dust Jacket
This is book 2 in Brandon Mull's Five Kingdom series. I liked the first book well enough, but didn't love it, mostly because Brady's character sort of bugged me. I still wish that Cole was older, maybe 15 or so. It's just hard to imagine a 12-year-old 6th grader being brave enough to do some of the things Cole does. But Brandon Mull likes to write his characters young, I'm sure to appeal to the age of his readers. (What does that say about this almost-40-year-old reader?) I'm just a fan of good, clean stories and those are mostly found in books for the younger age set. This was a good second book. It's setting up some interesting things for the next 3 books so I think they'll be even better.
{Spoiler Alert}
Cole, Mira, Jace and Twitch are together for most of this story which I like. They're joined by Joe who's a member of the Unseen resistance and who has sworn to protect Mira. They travel to Elloweer, a neighboring kingdom to Sambria to look for Honor. Their magical items (gold rope and jumping sword) won't work in Elloweer so they're on their own at first. In the city of Carthage, Cole runs into the slave trader that captured him in the first book and has to outrun him before eventually being captured and then rescued by his friends.
Joe knows the slave trader and realizes that they're going to need some powerful disguises for Cole and Mira if they're going to be able to leave the city. They go to find an illusionist who is sympathetic to the resistance and might help them. It's sort of like a magic show and the real magician turns out to be the assistant. Her real name is Skye although she has a lot of aliases. She joins Cole & Mira. Along the road, they are stopped by the Rogue Knight and Mira is taken captive. The Rogue Knight has unusual strength and power, which as it turns out, was given to him after it was stolen from Honor. Cole tries to go after her and lights up his Jumping Sword with flames, which isn't supposed to work in Elloweer, but he can only do it once and he can't rescue Mira. The group decides to split up. Cole & Jace go with Skye to her hometown of Merriston where she asks her mom to help them get a job at the Silver Lining confidence lounge which is where they think Dalton is.
Cole finds his friend Dalton at the Silver Lining (a place where people in disguise trade secrets) and convinces him to escape with them to search for their other friends and help Mira. Dalton has some shaping abilities and helps Skye create disguises ("seemings") for the group. They learn that the Rogue Knight has challenged the champion of Merriston to a duel and they decide to go because they think Mira will be there and because they think Honor is the secret prisoner of Blackmont Castle. The Rogue Knight wins and agrees to let them into the castle to see if Honor is there, but pretty soon the castle is under attack and they have to search quickly and leave. Turns out the secret prisoner is Brady, who has willingly given his power to the shape crafters to make Morgassa (who looks like a teacher he feared). Morgassa is an evil power shaped much like Carnag (or so they think) and she's overpowering villages with her figments and turning the people into walking zombies.
The Rogue Knight tells them that Trillian, a powerful, but imprisoned torivor, might be able to help them figure out how to defeat Morgassa. Trillian has Honor. They have to win a contest against Trillian for Honor's freedom and in the process Cole learns that he has some great, untapped power. They rescue Honor and Trillian tells them to ask Callista for help against Morgassa. Callista is a Grand Shaper who's been on the run from the High King and has taken refuge in Fog Lake. She teaches Cole even more about his powers and encourages him to develop them. She lets the group each pick an animal mask which will turn them into that animal for their fight against Morgassa. She warns them not to keep the mask on too long because the desire to stay that animal is strong. Cole picks a mountain lion. The Rogue Knight and his men go with them and they fight Morgassa. Callista is killed in the battle and tells Skye that she wants her to become the Grand Shaper of Elloweer and to go back to Trillian to be taught by him. Cole starts to be aware of the power surges during the battle and harnesses his power with the Jumping Sword again, also giving Jace power with the gold rope again. Ultimately that's what defeats Morgassa, but as she's dying Morgassa grabs Cole and separates him from his power somehow. She does the same thing to Callista, which is why Callista can't heal herself. The Rogue Knight returns Honor's power to her and the group splits up again to look for the remaining sisters. Joe tells Cole that he's actually from California and once tried to get home but was drawn back to Zeropolis, his home away from home and where Cole, Mira, Jace & Dalton are headed next. Minimum (the Rogue Knight's half knight--he's a dwarf but has been permanently changed by Callista) agrees to be Twitch's champion and help his village defeat the overbearing aldermen who are ruling, so they go their separate way.
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