posted on 18 Feb 2018

Free Lance and the Dragon's Hoard by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

The concluding book in the medieval trilogy featuring Free Lance, the knight for hire, will delight its readers as much as the preceding two instalments. In my review of Free Lance and the Field of Blood I commented on just how well author and illustrator understand each other and blend their strengths together and in this final adventure this teamwork is evident again.

Free Lance is, as usual, down to his last few coins and in need of a commission. He’s even lost the help of his faithful squire who has holed-up with a broken leg and so when a rich merchant offers him an easy job it seems like his luck has turned. The merchant – Free Lance nicknames him The Peacock – wants the knight to escort him and his valuable goods safely to the next town and this seems a job that’s too easy to be true. And, as you might expect, that’s precisely what it is – too good to be true.

As the two of them camp overnight, The Peacock tells Free Lance that this place is a cursed land that they should not stop in and that it’s a place where a dragon is reputed to have killed armies of people. Scoffing at the story Free Lance tells the merchant that he’s being too jumpy and that there are no such things as dragons. All well and good until The Peacock’s horse goes missing and is found disembowelled by something wild and vicious.

The two of them decide not to wait overnight and make a dash for town. Safely ensconced in a convenient inn, Free Lance counts his earnings (minus the cost of the dead horse) and catches sight of a poor but beautiful young woman talking to her ragged, shrivelled and bad tempered father. His vow not to get involved doesn’t last long because he witnesses the very same beautiful young woman being taken out of town dressed as a sacrifice for the dragon and, of course, has to do something to help.

But there is no such thing as a dragon is there? Well, it turns out that life is a bit more complex than that. There are human adversaries that might be just as dangerous as a dragon and there’s more than one monster in this world.

 I obviously can’t tell you how all this turns out but I can tell you that our hero gets a lot more than he ever anticipated – in every sense of those words. This is a pretty bloodthirsty finale and will, I’m sure, thrill its target audience – there’s plenty of jeopardy here and some truly medieval fight scenes.

Chris Riddell’s drawing are, as ever, fabulous and I really liked his portrayal of the two baddies who come to a sticky end – he does a slob better than almost any illustrator I know.

Stewart and Riddell have decided to end the series here and have heeded the advice to always walk away leaving the audience wanting more. I, for one, would have been happy for Free Lance to have had a few more outings.

 

Terry Potter

February 2018