Bestselling novelist Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom for the never-before-told love story
of Sabriel's parents Terciel and Elinor and the charter magic that brought them together?and
threatened to tear them apart. A long-awaited prequel to a classic fantasy series. In the Old
Kingdom a land of ancient and often terrible magics eighteen year-old orphan Terciel learns
the art of necromancy from his great-aunt Tizanael. But not to raise the Dead rather to lay
them to rest. He is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting and Tizanael is the Abhorsen the latest in a long
line of people whose task it is to make sure the Dead do not return to Life. Across the Wall in
Ancelstierre a steam-age country where magic usually does not work nineteen year-old Elinor
lives a secluded life. Her only friends an old governess and an even older groom who was once a
famous circus performer. Her mother is a tyrant who is feared by all despite her sickness and
impending death . . . but perhaps there is even more to fear from that. Elinor does not know
she is deeply connected to the Old Kingdom nor that magic can sometimes come across the Wall
until a plot by an ancient enemy of the Abhorsens brings Terciel and Tizanael to Ancelstierre.
In a single day of fire and death and loss Elinor finds herself set on a path which will take
her into the Old Kingdom into Terciel's life and will embroil her in the struggle of the
Abhorsens against the Dead who will not stay dead. *USA Today Bestseller* ?One of the greatest
living fantasy writers. I will never get enough of the Old Kingdom.? ?Sarah J. Maas #1 New
York Times bestselling author
