Skif, a young orphan living with a miserly uncle, is taken in by a gang of pickpockets and becomes a master of the thieves' trade, until he is chosen by one of Valdemar's magical horses and is transformed into a herald for the queen.
Dr. Maya Witherspoon, the daughter of a British physician and a Brahmin woman, flees her home in India following the mysterious deaths of her parents in 1909, and sets up practice among the poor of London, but she knows she must find a way to develop the magical powers she inherited from her parents in order to stop the evil that stalks her.
Lavan, brought to the capital city of Haven against his will, suffers humiliation and beatings at the hands of his classmates until his rage transforms him into something fearsome and powerful--with training, he will become the most notorious Herald in Valdemar's history.
In 1867 Texas, Jett, a girl passing as a boy while seeking her long-lost twin brother, joins forces with Honoraria Gibbons, an inventor, and White Fox, a young Army scout, to investigate a zombie army that is terrorizing the West.
Spirit White attends the mysterious Oakhurst Academy after her parents are killed in a car accident, and as she learns how to control the magical gifts she never knew she had, her classmates begin to disappear and it is up to Spirit to find out what has happened to them.
