The Golden Key

SPOILER ALERT: This description assumes the reader is familiar with the events that have taken place in the previous books of the series. If you haven't read them, you may not want to read this description.The Banner is in disarray: Giorge is gone. Angus is missing. Hobart and Ortis are unsettled by recent events, but they desperately cling to hope as they search for him. Will they find him? And, if they do, will what they find be him? Or someone-something-else?Embril is devastated by what happened to Angus and is desperate to get him back-or to wreak vengeance on the thing that took him from her. But how? She doesn't even know what it was, let alone its vulnerabilities. But she's a librarian, and she knows how to find out.And what of the others? Voltari's spell worked, and the curse is over, but his plans are unfolding in a way he could not have anticipated. Taro and Abner continue their journey through the Western Kingdoms, but will they reach Hellsbreath in time? And King Tyr's unease grows as he gathers information about the unseen enemy from the north that may not even be there. And then there's Typhus and the little gold key he stole from Argyle that set everything in motion. Why is it so important? What does it open? Why does he want it back? Robert P. Hansen has taught community college courses since 2004 and is currently teaching introductory courses in philosophy and ethics. Prior to that, he was a student for ten years, earning degrees in psychology (AA, BA), philosophy (BA, MA-T), sociology (MA), and English (MA). Writing has been a hobby of his since he graduated high school, going through several phases that were influenced by what he was doing at the time.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he played Dungeons and Dragons, read fantasy novels, and wrote fantasy short stories. He was also influenced by country music, particularly ballads, and wrote a number of short fantasy ballads that were later incorporated into the long poem "A Bard Out of Time."In the mid-1990s, college and work did not leave him much time for writing, and he mainly wrote poetry. It was during this period that he learned how to write sonnets and became obsessed with them. Since he was focused on developing the craft of poetry, it was a recurring theme in many of the poems from this period ("Of Muse and Pen"); however, as a student of psychology, psychological disorders were also of interest to him, and he wrote several sonnets about them ("Potluck: What's Left Over"). He also began to submit his poems for publication, and several appeared in various small press publications between 1994 and 1997.Most of the poems appearing in "Love & Annoyance" (both the love poems and the speculative poems) were written while he was a student (1994-2004), and relate to his romantic misadventures and his discovery of philosophy, the proverbial love of his life.The poems in "A Field of Snow and Other Flights of Fancy" do not fit into a specific period; they are humorous poems reflecting momentary insights or playful jests, which can happen at any time. However, most were written before 1999.In 1999, his interest shifted to writing science fiction short stories. Most of these stories were a response to a simple question: Why would aliens visit Earth? The majority of these stories appeared in magazines published by Fading Shadows, Inc. He later returned to this question in 2013 to finish his collection, "Worms and Other Alien Encounters."In 2003, he discovered the poetry of Ai as part of a project for a poetry workshop. Ai is known for her persona poems written from the perspective of serial killers, murderers, abusers, and other nasty characters. Her work inspired... When I began revising the series, my intention was to improve the quality of the writing for The Tiger's Eye and add a little worldbuilding, but my experience with the series greatly impacted what I was doing: I knew where the story was going, and that opened up possibilities for foreshadowing