For generations the misty Shadowline has marked the boundary between the
lands of men and the lost northern lands that are the lair of their
inhuman enemies, the ageless Qar. But now that boundary line is moving
outward, threatening to engulf the northernmost land in which humans
still live -- the kingdom of Southmarch. For centuries, the Eddon family
has ruled in ancient, forbidding Southmarch Castle, guarding the border
against the Qar's return, but now this powerful royal line has been
dealt a devastating blow. The monarch, King Olin, is being held captive
in a distant land, and it falls to his inexperienced heirs to lead their
people in a time of growing danger and dread. It is on the two youngest
Eddons that the heaviest burdens fall. The twins Barrick and Briony, who
in such evil times have only each other, may lose even that bond as
darkness closes over them. As the Qar's power reaches out across their
land, will Southmarch Castle, the only home they've ever known, become
in fact what it has long been called -- Shadowmarch?