Jordan was a ghost in Castle Roogna now, spending his time with little five-year-old Ivy and watching his own past unfold on the magic tapestry. But once he had been a valorous knight, riding his ghost horse Pook on a fabulous and dangerous mission. He had been betrayed with a cruel lie by two wily magicians and the woman he loved. He had been killed at the end, and his bones had been scattered. Now he could not even remember where they had been buried. That was important, because Jordan's talent had been to recover form almost any injury, provided enough of his body could be assembled to grow together again. But all that had been four hundred years before. Nobody who was alive today knew or cared where his bones might be. It was hardly the proper ending for a gallant adventure!

Summary:

Ivy, the five-year-old sorceress, was tired of all the attention being paid to her new baby brother and bored by the history of Xanth she was watching on the magic Tapestry. So when Jordan the Ghost joined her, hoping to see his past, Ivy was eager to learn about his life. Sadly, Jordan couldn't remember much, but he was sure the details would come back if Ivy helped him with the Tapestry- and what the Tapestry revealed then was enough to make Ivy forget her boredom and her little brother.

Four hundred years earlier, Jordan had been a hero in search of adventure- goblins to fight, dragons to slay, maidens to rescue and so on. Then the rival twins Yin and Yang had sent him on a dangerous Quest... a Quest to settle the succession of the kingdom once and for all.

Mounted on the ghost horse Pook, Jordan had set out with a bag of magic spells to find something- the twins were maddeningly vague about what. But it was a mission that would lead to many strange perils, and end in a Cruel Lie from which even his unique talent could not save him...