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''Oakleaf Bearers'', or ''The Battle for Skandia'' in the United States, is the fourth novel in the Ranger's Apprentice book series, which was written by Australian author John Flanagan. This book was a finalist for the 2006 Aurealis Award for Best Children's Novel. The book continues to track Will and includes such characters as Halt, his mentor, and Horace, his best friend. ==Plot summary== The book continues from where the previous book left off. In ''The Icebound Land'', Evanlyn the princess and Will the apprentice Ranger had been captured and sold as slaves. As time went on, Halt and Horace travelled across Gallica, defeating knights, and ridding Gallica of the evil warlord Deparnieux. They are now in Gallica ready to travel through a pass into Skandia to save Will and Evanlyn. Meanwhile, Will has overcome his addiction to warmweed and finally regains his senses. Evanlyn, revealed to be Princess Cassandra, is out checking traps for food when she is taken hostage by a Temujai. Halt and Horace, still on their rescue mission, find a border outpost of which a dozen Skandians lay dead, shot. Halt manages to recognise an arrow, shot by the Temujai and becomes instantly worried. Two decades ago, the Temujai had nearly conquered the world, but with politics and a dish of bad shellfish, the invasion was stopped. Halt and Horace, after managing to track the Temujai down, came to Will's aid and they try to get Evanlyn back. Halt and the group, after being reunited, were then captured by Erak, the Skandian Jarl who had set Evanlyn and Will free. Erak had been trying to track down the people who shot the Skandians at the other gate, and hastily came to a conclusion that Halt was the one who did it. Halt gave a list of reasons, which convinced the senior Jarl to listen to him. The Skandians have no chance, as they are greatly outnumbered and the Temujai have long-range archers, versus the Skandians one-on-one close combat. Halt, Evanlyn, Will, and Horace are now forced to stay in Skandia because the Temujai have blocked their only exit to their homeland. Erak came to a decision into trying to get Ragnak, the Oberjarl, to let Halt become their strategist as he had lived and fought with and against the Temujai before, thus knowing their battle plans and style of fighting. Halt and Erak also manage to find the main army of the Temujai, followed with a very narrow escape because of Erak's clumsiness. Halt and Will also manage to convince the Oberjarl into getting the slaves to become archers with their reward of freedom, of which Ragnak had to very reluctantly accept. 20 Skandians were also supposed to use hit-and-run tactics to delay the Temujai from reaching Hallasholm. The Temujai were not expecting this kind of strategic action from the blunt Skandians. Further on in the story, the Temujai begins their first attack and, as Halt had said, made a fake retreat of which the Skandians purposely followed their "ambush". Halt, however, had placed a group of Skandians to ambush the Temujai. This drove them back to the General of the army, along with the Colonel of intelligence, were very surprised because the Skandians were not behaving anything at all from what they've heard. In the battle, Will manages to keep his archers concealed for a while, but they are soon spotted. Will kept his archers firing their arrows, but they were defeated. Meanwhile, the Skandians made an impact on the opposing army, and the General had to retreat back to his homeland because he lost too many warriors. The Skandians did not win though, but they made it too costly for the Temujai to continue. Erak takes the group back to their home. After a long happy union, Will and Evanlyn then find out that Halt has been banished; Erak saves the awkward moment by trying to include it in their treaty to pardon him, of which King Duncan agrees. In the end, Halt was rewarded with his reunion back with the Rangers, Horace with his knighthood and position as the Royal Guards, and Will was offered to become one of the Royal Scouts, a high position in the King's army that trains archers and that only nobles could probably have; this would give him fame and reputation, but Will, in his heart, turns the offer down. Will wants to continue his training to become a full-fledged Ranger. Evanlyn, near the end as well, is sad because her friendship with Will is breaking up, and Alyss is a little glad about that in later books. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oakleaf Bearers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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