When Mallory found Arbican in the felled oak, he was covered with mold and mildew and looked nothing like a great enchanter—at least as she envisioned a wizard from tales her mother had told her. But the tattered old man insisted that he had to join the other magic folk in Vale Innis, having been trapped in the tree when they all sailed away to that Land of Heart's Desire. And Mallory not only believed him, but began to hope that he would somehow reward her with her heart's desire if she helped him.
But it soon became apparent that Arbican's power had been strangely affected by the ages spent in the tree and that both of them were in need of help as its curious manifestations tum- bled them into the maze of nefarious plots and counterplots in which the villainous Squire Scrupnor had involved Mallory's village.
With acid-tongued Arbican and sturdy Mallory combating a robustly comic cast of rogues and hypocrites, Lloyd Alexander has fashioned a highly entertaining tale. And the sly home truths with which he salts it will be enjoyed by a wide audience.
—from the dust jacket
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