Oakleaf Bearers, or The Battle for Skandia in the United States, is the fourth novel in the Ranger's Apprenticebook series, which was written by Australian author John Flanagan. Its story continues from where the previous book, The Icebound Land, ended. This book was a finalist for the 2006 Aurealis Award for Best Children's Novel. The book continues to track Will on his adventures and includes such characters as Halt, his mentor, and Horace, his best friend.
Plot summary
In the previous book, The Icebound Land, Cassandra and Will 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 Cassandra. 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 member of a Temujai scout party, or Tem'uj.
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 rescue Cassandra.
Halt and the group, after being reunited, were then captured by Erak, the Skandian Jarl who had set Cassandra 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, Cassandra, 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 extreme 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. 100 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 with strategic units known as Ulans 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 in the bushes 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, they simply made it too costly for the Temujai to continue.
Erak takes the group back to their home. After a long happy reunion, Will and Cassandra 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, into which only nobles are admitted; 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. Cassandra, near the end as well, is sad because her friendship with Will is breaking up, but happy that he is doing what he loves.
