When twelve-year-old Maggie attempts to rescue Hadyn during a sudden blizzard in the Colorado mountains in 1886, both cousins change their minds about each other.
When the raging Mississippi threatens their secret cache of hard-earned nickels and pennies, Molly and her white friend Garrett risk their lives to retrieve the money.
In alternate chapters, Sadima travels from her farm home to the city and becomes assistant to a heartless man who is trying to restore knowledge of magic to the world, and a group of boys fights to survive in the academy that has resulted from his efforts.
In alternate chapters, Sadima works to free captive boys forced to copy documents in the caverns of Limori, and Hahp makes a pact with the remaining students of a wizards' academy in hopes that all will survive their training.
Orphaned Katie Rose, nearing the end of her journey to Oregon County where she hopes to be taken in by her uncle and cousins, begins to wonder what life will be like for her, and for her beloved Mustang, which she plans to give its freedom.
Kidnapped and confined to a room in a castle before she can develop her flying and magical skills, Alida the faerie patiently plans her escape--with the help of a human boy.
Heart must solve the riddle of Castle Avamir, which is, among other things, "deep in a valley" and "over the moon, " in order to find a safe haven for the unicorns as the Gypsies leave Lord Levin's mountains for Lord Kaybale's plains.
After returning from captivity and being traded to Norman invaders, Lara and her horse escape and find refuge with nuns whom she teaches to breed horses.
