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/image00116.jpeg)
  
  Copyright © 2020 Elena Lawson
  
  Cover by Christian Bentulan
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
  a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the
  prior written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations
  in a book review.
  
  This is a work of fiction. Characters, incidents and dialogs are products of
  the author’s
  
  imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual
  events is strictly
  
  coincidental.
  
  > CONTENTS
  
  >  _Dedication_
  
  >  _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_
  
  >  _Chapter 21_
  
  >  _Chapter 22_
  
  >  _Chapter 23_
  
  >  _Chapter 24_
  
  >  _Chapter 25_
  
  >  _Chapter 26_