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: Second Priority
  Priorities Series: Book Two
   
  Este Holland
  
  Second Priority
  Copyright © 2020 by Este Holland.
  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
  whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations em- bodied in critical articles or reviews.
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organiza- tions, places, events and incidents either are the product of
  the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely
  coincidental.
  For information contact :
  (www.esteholland.com)
  
  Also by Este Holland
  Novels:
   
  First Priority
   
  Karma’s a Bit*h
   
  The Artist’s Boxer
   
  The Marshal’s PI
   
  The Marshal’s Teacher
   
  The Marshal’s Mobster
   
  Deacon and the Dead
   
  
  Short Stories:
  Mik and Journey
   
  Nick and Ben
   
  Cameron and Gray
   
  The Perfect Gift
   
  Gannin and Kai
   
  Deacon and the Headless Ghost
   
  
  Au