What would the story of Christ and his church be like if it began in medieval Europe? That is the premise for novelist Ron Patterson's allegorical fantasy epic, The Ballad of Penumbria. In the first volume, A King's Ransom, a lonely orphan-turned-thief named Dava struggles to survive in a kingdom ruled by a cruel regent, Duke Botewulf Blagden. A seeming chance encounter with three strange travelers detours Dava from an appointment with death and reunites him with a lost love.