A vital message. A desperate queen. A hero in the making.

He is plainly too young and too inexperienced for the mission, but on the advice of her aged adviser Natoum, and with her husband off at war, the Queen reluctantly assigns the task of delivery to...

Madrenga.

Accompanied only by a runt of a pony and a scrap of a pup, he sets off to transport the royal message to its destination. No matter what it might take.

But things are not always what they seem. Heroes are sometimes made of the strangest stuff, and love is to be found in the most unexpected places.

If one doesn't die while treading the lethal path...

"Rip-roaring action sequences and the mystery of Madrenga's curious powers propel the story through a series of consistently surprising twists and turns."-Publishers Weekly

"Alan Dean Foster is the modern day Renaissance writer, as his abilities seem to have no genre boundaries."-Bookbrowser

"One of the most consistently inventive and fertile writers of science-fiction and fantasy." -The Times (London)

"Foster's brisk and eventful novel should please any reader looking for a quick and diverting adventure."-Booklist