Stated first printing, with complete numberline to "1". Tight, clean, flat, square, sharp and crisp book in slightly wrinkled DJ. One of the fastest-rising stars in adventure fantasy, R.A. Salvatore is the New York Times bestselling author of eighteen action-packed novels of thrilling wonder, magic, and swashbuckling derring-do, including The Legacy and The Woods Out Back. Now he introduces a marvelous world of sorcery and danger, in a time when outcasts and outlaws are destined to become legendary heroes? For twenty years, the once proud lands of Eriador have lain, conquered and suffering, under the despotic and demonic power of the evil Wizard-King Greensparrow and his legions of monstrous cyclops soldiers. The dwarves and Fairborn elves are slaves; humans fare little better. Arena fighter Luthien Bedwyr, son of Eorl Gahris of Bedwyrdrin, is too young and privileged to understand Greensparrow?s oppression. Then one night Luthien seeks justice for a friend?s murder, only to become a fugitive from Greensparrow?s thugs. It is a flight that will turn into grand adventure when he befriends the egotistical, irrepressible ?highwayhalfling? Oliver deBurrows? and a magical odyssey when the two are recruited by the ancient, exiled wizard Brind?Amour. For now their mission is to battle a dragon and obtain wondrous rewards: most especially a cape that renders its wearer invisible?but leaves behind an indelible scarlet silhouette. Falling from lord?s heir to common thief should be a pathetic fate for Luthien, but the masses are tormented by the excesses of Greensparrow?s henchmen. Luthien, Oliver, and a beautiful elf slave discover that any blow against the establishment may foment revolution. And that Eriador is desperately ready to rally behind a legend. Like the whispered rumors of a mysterious robber-assassin who strikes only evildoers, distributing their spoils to the innocent. An unseen, unstoppable hero known as? the Crimson Shadow.