The girl with the haunting green eyes…
THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD ELISSA LEADS a solitary life. She knows nothing of her parents—only that her mother is dead. Her caretaker, Nana, keeps her father's identity a secret from her. Meanwhile Elissa carries her own secret—the people of the valley must not know that she has the gift of speaking to animals. For now she is just a healer's apprentice in peaceful High Crossing, but Elissa dreams of a more exciting life, and of, one day, finding her father.
When an unexpected royal guest arrives at the Manor, Elissa's life changes forever. She leaves home with him, only to discover that she's become a pawn in a battle for his kingdom. Accompanied by her dear donkey, Gertrude, she is delivered to the evil Khan. Elissa's quest for freedom and the truth about her past leads to questions about the future. Is she the key to a prophecy—the prophecy of the Phoenix—that everyone seems to know about, except her?
Author comments:
The original title of this book was Escape from the Khan. It was, almost word for word, the same story I told my daughter when she was eight. The setting, the Great Desert, was based on a trip I took to Morocco in 1980, in which (accompanied by a beautiful red-haired maiden) I met the Tuareg Berbers -- the Blue People. When the Elissa trilogy was picked up by Random House, I realized the first book needed a new ending. As I had somewhat haphazardly chopped up the story into three books (entirely without regard to silly little details like plot), Book One closed far too abruptly. In the original version, there was no confrontation with the Khan, no white-robed Ankaa, and no tense showdown in the desert. It was most unsatisfying. So I sat down and wrote an additional two chapters, introduced the Ankaa and increased Elissa’s powers, which created a much more viable conclusion to the story. I also included some hilarious talking buzzards, without whom the world would simply not be the same.