In an offshoot of his Circle series, Ted Dekker gives us the six-volume Lost Books series. This set of adventures takes place in the nearly 15 years between his Circle series books Black and Red. This is a time when the evil Horde, worshippers of Teeleh, led by Qurong, and the remnant of the forest people, worshippers of Elyon, led by Thomas Hunter, face off in an ever-spiraling conflict. The fifth book in the Lost Books series, Lunatic, follows immediately after Chaos. This book is co-authored by Ted Dekker and Kaci Hill. As the story begins, our three remaining chosen ones, Johnis, Silvie, and Darsal, have just vanquished the vampire Alucard and are eager to return to their own time and their normal lives. However, they materialize five years after they had originally left. What is more worrisome is that they returned to the heart of their old forest home, which has since become a stronghold of the Horde. Darsal causes a distraction so that Johnis and Silvie can escape to find the healing water that they once needed to prevent the onset of the scabbing disease of the Horde. But Darsal is captured and thrown in prison. Here she learns that the albino's relationship with Elyon's water has changed from what she once knew. She must drown to save herself. She escapes from her prison and in a leap of faith, she follows Elyon's will. But just when she is about to make her escape back to her own people, Elyon tells her to go back to the Horde city and give herself to them in love. Here she meets the Horde general Marak and offers herself as his servant, however, a deeper relationship develops.
Meanwhile, Johnis and Silvie make their escape and are hiding on the outskirts of the forest looking for the water of Elyon. They do not know about the drowning and slowly begin to turn to Horde. However, a tempting siren named Shaeda calls to Johnis through his mind, urging for him to come to her. Her lure is too strong to resist. There is something exciting and dangerous about her. In Johnis's weakened mental state, she easily overpowers him to buy into a scheme to form an alliance with Qurong's dark priest Sucrow. He is to travel to the lair of one of Teeleh's Shataiki queens and retrieve an amulet that will give him power over the Shataiki legions. However, this Shaeda is no ally of Elyon and has her own nefarious plans for the amulet. The only thing that is keeping Johnis from giving himself wholly to Shaeda is Silvie who has not fallen under her powerful spell. As Lunatic comes to a close, the amulet is retrieved and brought to Marak. How this will end will be determined in the sixth and final book in the series, Elyon.
