title: The King Commands: Tales of the Borderlands Book Two
author:  Meg Burden 
description: This second episode in the Tales of the Borderlands series sturdily follows the first (Northlander, 2007) with a nearly seamless weave of action and romance amid ethnic strife. Sixteen-year-old would-be Healer Ellin is abruptly banished by the new Northlands king she adoresonly to find her Southern homeland being torn apart by ruthless Guardians bent on extirpating any signs of psychic powers among the general population. Hearing that the Guardians are also building up an ominously large private army, Ellin returns to the five royal Northland brothers who have adopted her, and who make up the rest of the closely knit central cast, to deliver an urgent warning. Ellin and the princes go a long way toward growing up here, as their skein of attachments develops further complexity and her relationship with deaf, scholarly, gentle Prince Flinn deepens. Burden ends the story with the Northlands poised to square off against the faceless Southling villains in the next volume. She also builds in plenty of reasons for readers to care about what happens next. Grades 6-9. --John Peters
zlib_text: ****![](Images/image00159.jpeg) Chosen ****
  
  Melanie Purser
  
    
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Melanie Purser
  
  All Rights Reserved.
  
  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or used in any
  manner without written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use
  of quotations in a book review.
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are a product
  of the author’s imagination.
  
  Cover Art by Angie Snyder
  
  Edited by Macie Gardner
  
    
  
  For my husband, Mark. Thank you for being my best friend, and for being the
  best father to our daughter.
  
  ******Contents** ****
  
  **_CHOSEN_**
  
  **_CONTENTS_**
  
  **_PROLOGUE_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 1_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 2_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 3_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 4_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 5_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 6_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 7_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 8_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 9_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 10_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 11_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 12_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 13_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 14_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 15_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 16_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 17_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 18_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 19_**
  
  **_CHAPTER 20_**
  
  *