"...we are all Death's pupils, we practitioners - students of the great healer." <br> <br>When magic broke free in my blood, I chose to follow our ancient family path and become a practitioner. I'm learning to heal, and to protect innocents. I dip into minds, stalk vampires, and set wards by the light of the moon. I can hear the children of the night calling. <br> <br>But there are other families...and other paths. Families with twisted ambitions and frightening powers. On the frontier, folk whisper that one clan is the most dangerous of all. <br> <br>Chief among those dark sorcerers is a man known as the Keeper of Souls. <br> <br>And now he wants to keep mine. <br>********* <br>REVIEWS: <br> <br>"With a clear, distinctive voice, Katharine Kimbriel invents and re-invents magic on America's frontier" <br>--Jane Yolen, the award-winning author of Briar Rose <br> <br>" ... once in a very great while I find something I wish I'd read thirty years before it was ever published. ... These books do not let you rest. Allie is constantly in heart-thumping danger, being tested by benevolent and evil forces, by her human teachers, by human enemies, and by adult-sized moral questions, though she begins at age eleven." <br> - Sleeping Hedgehog <br> <br>"charming...unusual...delightful...definitely worth checking out" <br>-- Locus Magazine <br> <br>"It is good to see this back--the Alfreda stories are one of the reasons YA is so dynamic today. ...Little House on the Prairie meets Harry Potter, with a dash of Stephen King." <br>--Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel <br> <br>"This is one of the best historical dark fantasies I've ever read. ...If you've not read any of Katharine Eliska Kimbriel's books yet, what's stopping you?" <br>--Shiny Book Review
