IN THE ANCIENT DAYS... "...there was a King of the blood of the Sthi. and he wore Five Crowns and all the world owed him homage and lived at peace with one another. Then the Years of Darkness came upon us, and men became as beasts, and the world we know today came into being. But from those days to this there has been among us a prophecy that a King shall once more rise to wear the Five Crowns and bring men to peace." This is the message brought by High Priestess Kayopla to Bertan Wandor. House Master of the Order of Duelists. Is Wandor the man chosen by destiny to claim the throne and restore peace? Only by setting out on an incredible quest. alone and unaided against the Dark Forces threatening his world, can Wandor dis. cover the truth. It is a quest rich in adventure. combat. mystery and imagination. in the highest traditions of heroic fantasy.

PROPHECY OF THE ANCIENTS "There was a King, and he wore Five Crowns and all the world owed him homage and lived at peace. Then the Years of Darkness came, and men became as beasts. But a King shall once more rise to wear the Five Crowns and bring men to peace:" Thus spoke the High Priestess Kayopla to Bertan Wandor. Only by undergoing the Test of the Five-Crowned King can Wandor fulfill his destiny and claim the throne. As Wandor sets out on his passionate quest to seek the Helm of the Jagnar in the depths of the dread Blue Forest, he is swept along on swirling cur rents of high adventure and peril, in the greatest tradition of heroic fantasy.

THE LAST OF THE FIVE-CROWNED KINGS SPOKE: "Go and win Firehair the Maiden. Go and win the faith of Strong-Ax and Fear-No-Devil. Go and win aid from Cheloth of the Woods. Go and seek these—the Helm of Jagnar. the Ax of Yevoda. the Spear of Valkath. the Sword of Artos. the Dragon-Steed of Morkol ....Go then at last to battle and smite those who come against you with all-your strength and cunning." His magical and monumental quest leads him across the Ocean to Benzos. where Cragor. the Black Duke. unleashes Kaldmor's sorceries to imprison Wandor and the red-haired Gwynna Then, with the help of Cheloth s mental powers. Wandor snatches the sacred Spear of Valkath and escapes to a friendly Sea Folk fleet. But the life of Gwynna remains in mortal danger, unless Wandor can retrieve the Ax of Yevoda. tne only material weapon that can slay the Beasts...

THE JUDGMENT "Death," said the armored man." "Death," echoed the man in the middle. "The death we have promised them." "Not death," said the sorcerer Beon-Kagri. "It shall be as I wish. They shall go north and seek the Dragon Steed of Morkol." Deep within the blackness beneath the city of Kerhab. Wandor the Swordsman and his beau-tiful Gwynna receive a terrible judgment. For their reluctant part in the unjust war against Kerhab, they must now capture the dreaded Dragon Steed of Morkol—a great winged creature possessed of Wondrous and fearsome powers. Alone in their desperate quest to find the beast—and bring peace once again to their embattled world—VVandor and Gwynna set forth on adventures as perilous and heroic and as fantastically imagined as WANDOR'S RIDE and WANDOR'S JOURNEY.