"You are not alone, son of Lore, Yah reassured me, lifting my spirit. 'Twas then he revealed my brothers, brothers not of blood, but of spirit, who would stand by my side to contest Tyro's dominion. You, Terin, are one of my true brothers, sent by Yah in our time of greatest need. Your birth was foretold long ago, long before King Vantor II of the Middle Kingdom revealed the prophecy of the one to find the lost Sword of the Moon. Your birth was foretold long before the rise and fall of ancient Tarelia. Your birth was revealed to Kal himself before he fell in battle, a divine vision from Yah to his most faithful servant. You are his only descendent, his line dying or living through you and you alone. It is through you that his divine gift endures, the power to strip gargoyles of their courage and sense. Against you, they cannot stand. It is Kal's blood that enables you to call upon such power, Kal's blood that ordains you a child of prophecy. It is Kal's blood that calls out to the Swords of Light, drawing you to them, their own power symbiotic to your own. In my hand, your sword can cut through any object and would guide my hand to preserve my life. In your hand, it is so much more, enhancing your power to drive off gargoyles tenfold. The swords were forged for the descendants of Kal. They were forged for you." --Prince Lorn at the siege of Mosar While the Torries and Jenaii celebrate their victory at Corell, the battle in Yatin grows dire, forcing difficult choices on Princess Corry. As acting regent of the northern realm, she is faced with a war-torn land bracing for winter, while her brother fights a desperate battle far away. Heeding her council, she lends him the only aid she can, much to her misgivings. At Corell, Cronus must again bid his beloved Leanna farewell, undertaking a delicate mission on behalf the realm, while Elos helps Alen set his own course in the fight against his former masters. To the east, Morac's legions limp into winter quarters at Notsu, licking their wounds, while their lord plots his revenge. In the Ape Empire, General Matuzak hosts the Earthers, inviting them to aid him in establishing a republic. At Fera, Tyro obsesses over the carvings in Terin's charm, consumed with the possibilities it portends, while Tosha prepares her return to her mother's isle with child and without her consort, preparing for an uncertain reception. Before journeying to Yatin, Terin's father confides in him the great and terrible truth that plagues his past and threatens their future, a truth that shakes Terin to his very core, casting doubt over everything he knows. He must carry this terrible burden into battle, helping his future king in saving an age-old enemy of their people against the greater threat threatening to consume them all. As the war expands throughout Arax, the fate of the Torry Realms hangs in the balance, their only hope for survival dependent on the battle of Yatin.

Our actions define us as heroes or cowards, not our intentions. Such is the nature of war, Arsenc. Men march beside their comrades into walls of spears and under rains of arrows, refusing to relent so as not to shame themselves before their brothers. For every man who shirks his duty and abandons his post, a hundred stand their ground. What more can a hero be than a man who risks his life for country and friend in spite of the obvious fear that strikes at us all? The paths of war and heroes are forever intertwined.... War does not create heroes. It merely reveals them. They are not measured by the greatest of deeds but by the simple willingness to do their part. I am marching north in their company. --King Lore, before the battle of Kregmarin Having freed Cronus from the dungeons of Fera, his friends must navigate the treacherous lands of the Benotrist realm to escape Tyro's wrath. Tosha hunts Raven, desperate to bring him to her mother's realm, or suffer the shame of failure before her vassals. Leanna eagerly awaits the return of her lost love while Terin must return to his native realm after becoming separated from the others. Journeying first to the Yatin Empire and then Corell, Terin continues to unlock the full power of his father's sword, embracing the mysterious destiny guiding his path. Tyro obsesses over the images carved on Terin's lost necklace, haunted by the ghosts of his past while unleashing Morac to wage war on the Torry realm. With the fortunes of his kingdom at stake, King Lore makes a bold decision. With the conflagration spreading across Arax, will the fate of the kingdoms rise and fall by the fickle winds of chance or the guiding hand of destiny?

Our actions define us as heroes or cowards, not intentions. Such is the nature of war, Arsenc. Men march beside their comrades into walls of spears and under rains of arrows, refusing to relent so as not to shame themselves before their brothers. For every man who shirks his duty and abandons his post, a hundred stand their ground. What more can a hero be than a man who risks his life for country and friend in spite of the obvious fear that strikes at us all? The paths of war and heroes are forever intertwined.... War does not create heroes. It merely reveals them. They are not measured by the greatest of deeds but by the simple willingness to do their part. I am marching north in their company. --King Lore, before the battle of Kregmarin Gargoyles had plagued mankind since the dawn of creation. Once servants of the Most High, they betrayed their creator, who cast them down upon Arax in mortal form, contesting mankind for dominion of the world. From this chaos, Yah, the creator, rose up a champion, Kal, to guide mankind in following his will and vanquishing the gargoyle curse. Kal found favor with the creator, unifying mankind into one kingdom, heralding a golden age of prosperity, justice, and equality before the law, while driving the gargoyles to the brink of extinction. Alas, all fell to ruin, his reign betrayed by the greed of treacherous lords, who slew their rightful king, establishing their own fated kingdoms, each falling in kind once the gargoyles rose again. And so mankind suffered, enduring endless war with their mortal foe for two and a half millennia, each unable to destroy the other, until one human, Tyro, arose, aligning his people with the gargoyles to war against the rest of mankind, destroying the balance that had kept the gargoyles in check since the days of King Kal. Bringing all of northern Arax under his dominion, Tyro threatened to sweep south, bringing all of Arax under his sway. With the drums of war sounding, Terin Caleph, the only son of a Torry farmer, embarks on a journey to the city of Rego to serve as a scribe and apprentice to the Torry ambassador, an old friend of his father's. To protect him on his journey, his father gifts him an ancient sword, which holds mysterious powers that he soon discovers. Are the powers inherent in the sword or in himself? Terin's journey draws him into a growing conflict between his native Torry realm and Tyro's Benotrist-Gargoyle Empire, in which he takes an ever larger and unforeseen role. Joined by a Torry warrior and a motley band of strangers from a place called Earth, he becomes caught up in the great war to decide the fate of all the sentient peoples of Arax. As in any war, there are heroes found in places one would rarely look.

Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, ''When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West,'' and in this book, Mark Arax sets out to explain just what TR meant. His is a compelling, sometimes ominous portrait of a place and its people who are often surviving on the edge, reliving history, and losing their way in the promised land: ''The Summer of the Death of Hilario Guzman'' is a deeply-felt portrait of an immigrant family from Oaxaca, followed through harrowing border crossings and raisin harvests; ''the Last Okie of Lamont,'' (the inspiration for the town featured in The Grapes of Wrath) has only one Okie left, who tells Arax his life story as he drives to a funeral to bury one more Dust Bowl migrant; and ''Highlands of Humboldt'' is a visit to the marijuana growing capital of the U.S., where the local bank collects a sizeable daily deposit of cash, most of which reeks of marijuana.Combining hard-hitting reporting and stellar writing, Arax captures both the atmosphere of social upheaval and the sense of being rooted in a community. Once you meet the people portrayed in this book, you won't forget them.

Why is criminal justice so central to American politics? Lockdown America notonly documents the horrors and absurdities of militarized policing,prisons, a fortified border, and the federalization of the war oncrime, it also explains the political and economic history behind themassive crackdown. This updated edition includes an afterword on the War on Terror, a meditation on surveillance and the specter of terrorism as they help reanimate the criminal justice attack. Written in vivid prose, Lockdown America willpropel readers toward a deeper understanding of the links between crimeand politics in a period of gathering economic crisis.