Beneath a crimson sun lie wastelands of majestic desolation and cities of cruel splendor, where heroes must battle the horrible monsters and vicious raiders who roam the desert, while in the cities undying sorcerer-kings crush any who dare to oppose them. This is Athas, the unrelenting world of the Dark Sun®; a world shaped by inherently destructive magic, and ruled by intrinsic evil. In such a world, the forces of good—and the heroes who emerge in this unforgiving land—fight not only for themselves, but for life of the world itself. Aric, is a half-elf with a rare natural ability with the psionic discipline known as “the Way.” When Aric is brought into a quest to search for a priceless trove weapons, he would rather keep his head down and live a simple life. But nothing is simple in the city of Nibenay with it reclusive ruler known as the Shadow King. And in a world where metal is the rarest of commodities, Aric’s “way” with metal is an even rarer talent. Enlisted by the Shadow King himself to seek out this cache of metal weaponry, Aric heads into the desert with a treacherous band of adventurers. Allegiances are tested and secrets are uncovered. But sometimes the secrets hidden by the sands of time should remain undiscovered. When Aric and his band uncover an evil perhaps greater than the Shadow King himself, it is a race against time to see who will harness its power.

Where is the missing city? What's hidden there and why? Find out all this and more! High-interest topics, real stories, engaging design and astonishing photos are the building blocks of the XBooks, a new series of books designed to engage and motivate reluctant and enthusiastic readers alike. With topics based in science, history, and social studies, these action-packed books will help students unlock the power and pleasure of reading... and always ask for more! High-tech hunt for hidden treasure! Thousaands of years ago, a great city vanished from the Arabian Peninsula. Centuries later, and halfway around the world, an amateur archeologist thinks he knows just how to find it...

Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, the social and cultural worlds of medieval Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean were transformed by the religious impetus of the crusades. Today we bear witness to these transformations in the material and environmental record revealed by new archaeological excavations and reappraisals of museum collections. This volume highlights new archaeological knowledge being developed by scholars working in the fields of history, archaeology, numismatics, and architecture to demonstrate its potential to change and augment our understanding of the crusades. The 16 chapters in this volume deploy a contemporary scientific approach to archaeology of the crusades to give an up-to-date account into the diverse range of research in this area. They explore five key themes: the implications of scientific methods, new excavations and surveys, architectural analyses, sigillography, and the application of social interpretations. Together these chapters provide a new way of approaching the study of the crusades, and demonstrate the value of taking a holistic view that utilises the full diverse range of evidence available to us.