A war orphan rises from her humble beginnings to become a powerful military commander, and perhaps her country's only hope for survival. "When Rin aced the Keju--the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to study at the academies--it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn't believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin's guardians, who always thought they'd be able to marry Rin off to...

The King's Cavalla Academy has been ravaged by the Speck plague. The disease has decimated the ranks of both cadets and instructors, and even the survivors remain sickly. Many have been forced to relinquish their military ambitions and return to their families to face lives of dependency and disappointment. As the Academy infirmary empties, Cadet Nevare Burvelle also prepares to journey home, to attend his brother Rosse's wedding. Far from being a...

"In their remote Viking settlement, Folkvi and her brother, Aslakr, have always been close-unnaturally close. They've grown more intimate still as Folkvi learns her shaman mother's craft, as men regard her with newly devouring eyes. Then illness carries off their parents, and the nest of home is shattered. �Aslakr sets off on his first expedition, abandoning Folkvi to the dark of an endless winter. When he returns, he's done the unthinkable: He's...

"There is a very old story, rarely told, of a wolf that runs into the ocean and becomes a whale." Born with the soul of a hunter and the spirit of the Wolf, Omat is destined to follow in her grandfather's footsteps-invoking the spirits of the land, sea, and sky to protect her people. But the gods have stopped listening and Omat's family is starving. Alone at the edge of the world, hope is all they have left. Desperate to save them, Omat journeys...

"After a strange and violent blizzard leaves young shaman-in-training Pitu stranded on the sea ice--without his dog team or any weapons to defend himself--he soon realizes that he is no longer in the word that he once knew. The storm has carried him into the world of the spirits, a world populated by terrifying creatures. As he tries to find his way back home, Pitu is plagued by black wolves with red eyes, ravenous and constantly stalking him, water-dwelling...

Unable to find the answers she needs from shaman school, eleven-year-old Pahua Moua embarks on a quest in the Land of Dragons to prevent the evil god Xov from escaping his prison.