Terciel & Elinor

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.