The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick.

An introduction to the music and life of a minstrel in Europe in the Middle Ages.

"Meet Rickety Stitch ... a walking, talking, singing skeleton minstrel. He's the one skeleton in the dungeon who seems to have retained his soul, and he has no idea why. His only clue to his former identity is a song he hears snippets of in his dreams, an epic bard's tale about the Road to Epoli and the land of Eem. His sidekick and sole friend is Goo, a squishy blob of jelly that Rickety alone can understand. Together they set out in search of Rickety's...

"Richard the Lionhearted, inspired by a vision of the Holy Land, led his knights onto the battlefields of the Third Crusade.... Richard's life was intertwined with the lives of two... women who loved him -- Berengaria, princess of Navarre, and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.... But it is Blondel, the king's lute player, who here steps forward from the shadows to tell this tale of romance, war, and betrayal"--P. 4 of cover.