451 pages
"Hal, his Brotherband crew, and the Ranger Gilan have freed the twelve Araluens sold into slavery. Returning to Araluen, Gilan is given a new mission by King Duncan: protect his daughter's life. Princess Cassandra has survived one attempt on her life already, and now whispers of a second attempt have reached the kingdom. A deadly sect known as the Scorpion Cult is thought to be behind the assassination threat.
Not waiting to see if the knife will strike true, the Brotherband again teams up with Gilan to track down the would-be killers." -Dust Jacket
This is the 5th book in the Brotherband Chronicles series, a spinoff series of Ranger's Apprentice. I was talking to my 15-year-old daughter about these books yesterday. She read through book 7 of RA and stopped because she felt like it was the same story over and over. I think these series do become a bit repetitive story-wise but I still love them because I don't read them for the stories necessarily, I read them for the relationships. Thorn & Hal are basically Halt & Will and their relationship has evolved over the last five books with mutual respect and admiration growing between them. Same thing with the relationship between Thorn & Lydia. They are constantly ribbing each other but more and more Thorn compliments Lydia on her abilities and he genuinely cares about her.
The crossover between the two series and the addition of Gilan has been fun. I was grateful that John Flanagan mentioned in this book that Cassandra and Horace are married because that was really the only way to form a timeline for this story. Halt, Will & Horace are all off taking care of other matters for the King. I'm still waiting for the book that brings them all together. I think a conversation between Halt and Thorn would be awesome. A little friendly hand-to-one-hand would be even better.
In Scorpion Mountain, Hal's position as the skirl of the Heron is firmly established. His Brotherband runs like a well-oiled machine and Kloof is now an official member. The dog proves to be the difference between life and death several times. Ingvar is dealing with feelings of wanting to return to Skandia because his vision is so poor that he feels like he's not growing and developing new skills like the rest of the group. Hal, being the inventive guy he is, solves that problem for Ingvar in a way that adds some comedy and a new sense of purpose for Ingvar.
I thought the confrontation part of this story was a little lacking. There's this build-up that the Scorpion Cult is dangerous and deadly and then it's over and done in a short amount of time. Still, it's great to be able to read a clean, fun adventure every six months from John Flanagan.
{SPOILER ALERT}
In one of the RA books (the one where they go to the desert to rescue Erak), Evanlyn/Cassandra hits one of the Arridians in the face with her slingshot, and it's the brother of that man that takes out the hit (tolfah) on Cassandra with the Scorpion Cult in this book. The Shurmel is the leader of the Scorpion Cult and when someone hires them to kill someone it's an irrevocable contract. This information is learned when Cassandra takes Hal and his group on a hunt and a would-be assassin is captured. Thorn saves Cassandra's life by catching a poisoned arrow with his club hand. The assassin is taken back to the castle and questioned. He won't give any answers until they bring in Kloof. The assassin is deadly afraid of the dog and gives up information until he realizes that the King won't let the dog hurt him.
King Duncan sends Gilan and the Brotherband to Scorpion Mountain to try to reverse the contract but not before Hal invents a pair of glasses to help Ingvar see so that he won't want to return to Skandia. The glasses give Ingvar the appearance of skeleton eyes which paints a fun picture of him in battle. Ingvar's enthusiasm over being able to see is a fun part of the story and he's a force to be reckoned with after Thorn gives him a battle axe. There's one part where he steals Thorn's line of "Let's get 'em!" and Thorn's reaction is awesome. It's those parts of the books that I love. Selethen is back in this book and Hal helps him rid a city of the people who have captured it. During that battle, Ulf is stabbed and has to be left behind with Selethen's healers to recover. That creates an interesting new dynamic on the ship since Ulf and Wulf's constant bickering breaks the monotony of long days on the water.
Once they reach the deserted town near Scorpion Mountain, Hal invents a land sailer so they can travel faster over the desert to the mountain. Hal, Stig and Gilan leave the others behind to confront the cult. They realize that the only way to end the tolfah is to kill the Shurmel. He's a big man but still no match for Gilan, who quickly kills him. Another man asserts his right to be the new Shurmel and amidst that takeover, Gilan, Hal and Stig leave. They head back on the land sailer but Hal is so tired that he almost wrecks them. They stop for the night and Hal falls asleep during his watch, allowing a group to sneak up on them. Fortunately, it's a group of Bedullins Gilan knows and who helped them rescue Erak. That comes in handy because Thorn and the others are under attack from members of the cult who have been sent to kill them all. Thorn's defenses prove to be too much for them at first and even after they build rafts to try to breach the Heron after the Brotherband retreats to the ship, they are still defeated thanks to Stefan's impeccable impression of their leader who tells them to retreat. Gilan and the Bedullins show up and take them prisoner. Gilan suggests that they take the prisoners' clothes and disguise themselves so that the Bedullins can get into Scorpion Mountain and try to rid the land of the cult.
Gilan and the Brotherband go back to Araluen and the Brotherband are relieved of their duties to Araluen and sent back home. They're greeted by Erak and the Skandians. Erak's still a little bitter that Kloof chewed up his staff and axe but fortunately Hal has brought back the Shurmel's scorpion staff and he presents it to Erak. There's a big celebration where Jesper & Stefan recount their adventures through song. Hal heads home to get some sleep but instead ends up working all night trying to repair Erak's axe that Aloof was caught chewing on again.
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