A thrilling new adventure for young adults by internationally celebrated and prizewinning author, Peter Dickinson. Nigel's father is the British ambassador in Dirzhan, a small country up among the mountains way out east. It has one foot in the middle ages and one in the age of the internet. Its national myth is called The Vengeance of the Khan. On his first morning there he settles down write his blog. He's off to a good start, invited to visit the Khan's daughter Taeela, a real princess living in a real palace. Her father rules Dirzhan with an iron fist. His people are divided into feuding...

When Theodore s safe, predictable world is destroyed, his life and his faith are in danger Thirteen-year-old Theodore has lived in China all his life and never felt terror, until his father s missionary settlement is attacked and burned in the night. Theodore follows his father s orders and hides in the forest, only creeping back the next morning to see if anything or anyone has survived. But before he reaches the smoldering wreckage he runs into the formidable Mrs. Jones, a botanist and adventurer who s traveling across China on horseback with her young companion, Lung. The three head into...