Book Three: Winter Mage Boa chooses the bear... Boa is a whore's daughter, and her clan won't let her forget it. Every day brings the contempt of people who think themselves her betters. She has no rank, no coin, no magic - only one ambition: to ride with the Dust Clan cavalry. The odds are bad, but she's fearless - enough to tame a bear no one else would touch. Yet is this enough? Her clan is still reeling from its rout at the Obsidian Battle, and her training washes out stronger recruits by the week. Every trial she faces earns her enemies. A few earn her allies. And the further Boa pushes, the clearer it becomes: her fate and the future of the whole peninsula are inextricably entwined - whether the people who mocked her like it or not.