Stuart Hill

Many years have passed since Queen Thirrin and her allies defended the Icemark against a brutal invasion. But now General Bellorum is back, along with his bloodthirsty spawn, twin sons even more vicious than him.

Thirrin and Oskan also have a family: two girls and three boys. But darkness lurks within the House of Lindenshield: Medea, the couple's cold-hearted, fifteen-year-old daughter, who's just coming into her magical powers, may be the downfall of the kingdom.

It's up to her brother, Charlemagne, crippled by polio as a child, to return from exile and rescue the land he loves.

When her father dies nobly in battie, fourteen-year-old Thirrin Freer Strong-in-the-Arm Lindenshield becomes Queen of the Icemark, a tiny kingdom forever caught between dangerous neighbours. But she bears a heavy burden. Thirrin must not only win the respect of her people but also raise an army to protect them from the most formidable threat of invasion that her nation has ever known - and do so before the end of the winter snows. Resourcefully, she goes in search of new allies from far beyond her borders. With her friend Oskan Witch's Son at her side she journeys across the Land-of-the-Ghosts to the frozen Hub of the World. She meets the most incredible creatures: vampires, wolf-folk and most wondrous of all, the giant Snow Leopards. But can she persuade them to unite, and rally to The Cry of the Icemark?