Return of the White Deer

It's not easy growing up in seventh century England. Bit more difficult when you are the Chosen One and on track to become the next king. Especially if you have no army, no training, and no noble background.

At least that's what Pen thought after being kidnapped by the King Cearl and locked away in a dungeon. And, who could help him now? His father, a mere farmer? The few people in a backwater village where he lived, not even on some maps?

Ahh… but a village of secrets. Secrets about a matronly woman with a dark past and her feisty daughter who somehow had become an expert archer. Secrets even about Pen’s father who, without a weapon, took down an armed soldier. Secrets about his mother, long dead but never spoken about. Secrets about an old black horse which could outrun all other horses. But, most of all, secrets about a strange white deer lurking in a forbidden forest. 

Pen finds himself in the middle of a rebellion and on a roller-coaster ride either ending with his coronation or, far more likely, his death. Success hinges on a fifteen-year-old boy growing into a man in a few short months. Yup, growing up in Mercia wasn’t easy.