Uh, guys? Behind you...
The 18th book in the Endless Quest series. No relation to the famous PC game dynasty of the same name that happened to come out the same year.
Sparrow and Jay are two young brothers who wander the roads, eking out a living doing a juggling act at inns and festivals. On the way to the next town on their circuit, they come across an adventurer who's been mortally wounded by a band of cutthroats, on his way to where a king's ransom has been hidden. He gives the map to Jay and Sparrow on condition they bury the bones of the king who'd been left with his treasure once they find it. Now all the brothers have to do to be set for life is survive a perilous quest with no weapons or skills...
King's Quest provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Ending: In one path, the warrior Redbeard's injured, and the reader has the choice between waiting for him to recover before they get the treasure, or going to get it without him. If they take the first option, one day Redbeard just disappears along with their map. They never find out if he stole it and left them nothing, or if he did honestly intend to honor their partnership but ran into something that was too much for him and died.
- Giant Spider: There's one living in the cave where the treasure's hidden but in most endings it's already dead by the time the brothers get there.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: The guy from the prologue who gives Jay and Sparrow the map he'd been following.
- Kid Hero: Averted. Sparrow's just a kid (and the younger of the two brothers at that). As a result, he has to avoid trouble except for the times when he's managed to befriend a more powerful character.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: Sparrow and Jay probably are their real names, but one path involves Sparrow befriending a warrior he calls "Redbeard", for obvious reasons. That's even what the warrior says to call him after they decide to partner up. Likewise, the leader of the robbers who killed the guy in the prologue is only ever known as "Scarface", again for obvious reasons.
- Magical Weapon: In one path Sparrow and Redbeard find a treasure trove with a magic sword and chainmail vest for both of them. A bit ironically, they never really use them, except to trade to the caveman tribe they run into for the treasure. Since those primitive folk are more interested in practical things like weapons and armor than gold and jewels.
- Shapeshifter Showdown: One ending that seems heavily inspired by The Sword in the Stone involves the wizard Sparrow's befriended and an old rival changing themselves into a large portion of the D&D bestiary over who gets the treasure.
- Silver Bullet: Redbeard carries a silver dagger just in case he runs into an undead monster that normal weapons wouldn't work on.
- Supporting Protagonist: Probably the biggest example in the series. Sparrow makes the big decisions because that's the selling point of the books, but if something bad happens, he either has to run away or let someone else deal with it for him.
