© Helen Lowe 2008
But in the Yrth that Tamzin knows, all magic has been outlawed and those accused of using it are hunted down and put to death.
Now scholars like Tamzin's father are under attack as well, and Tamzin is forced to flee her quiet home and seek sanctuary in the mountainous and rebellious west. But her road there is a curious one, taking her to meet a red-haired goose girl called Lena, and a great lord of the Fey, the Leydon, on his enchanted hill.
It is the Leydon who tells Tamzin that he sees Death riding on her trail, closer than her shadow. All her strength and courage will be needed to escape that shadow and elude the renowned witch hunter, Sinastar Black— and find the fabled heartstone of Yrth, the jewel that is said to hold the essence of the heart magic.
So long as the heartstone exists unbroken, the heart magic will never die out — but every move that Tamzin and her friends make to save it brings Sinastar Black closer...