Kirjahaku

"Let me tell you a story that happened so long ago that only the hills and rivers can remember the time . . . ." All her life, thirteen-year-old Maki has heard tales of the legendary city of gold, buried deep in the northern frontier. But when her village is burned and her brother captured by cruel invaders, the legend becomes desperately real. Armed with a wolf-dog and a heart of courage, Maki sets out on a journey that will demand all her strength and cunning. She is determined to bring her brother home at all costs. Yet as her quest leads her deep into a wilderness of ancient dangers, Maki realizes that even for her, some prices are too high to pay.

"You see, Maki, that's the thing about the rivers. They're like the blood-lines in your hands.... If you lose your way, follow the river downstream and you'll always find your way back."In The Rivers Lead Home, Emily Hayse explores new frontiers, digging deeper into the land and the characters first introduced in her award-winning novel Seventh City. This collection of twelve short stories features beloved characters like Maki, Tsanu, Willow, Ransom, Laramie, Rutter, and Jeremiah, as well as introducing new characters like Spruce Norman, Mollie at Heart's End, and the mysteriously lucky dog-driver Epirvikk Heft. From lazy nights at the Pick and Collarbone to dog-races on the frozen tundra to the adventures of a young mapmaker in the jungles of Havast, these stories are full of laughter, surprises, brushes with glory, and heartwarmingly ordinary humanity.

"They say this land is bound, cursed since the beginning of the world. And it'll be freed one day by a man with war-torn hands."Rosamund Lacey has crossed a continent to marry Archer Scott because she believes he is a man set apart-a man with a destiny. But Alexander Mortimer, Outlaw King of the western territory, believes in only one kind of destiny: winner takes all.Determined to reign supreme, Mortimer kidnaps the governor's bride and wreaks havoc on the land around Glory Mesa. But when Archer refuses to choose between the woman he loves and the land he has sworn to protect, he is forced into a showdown that may cost more than his life.

"It's not until you tame the wild places that the monsters come out."New hope brings new challenges and new blood from the East. With Archer and Rosamund Scott presiding over the land they love and Raymond Lacey serving as marshal, Glory Mesa is poised to enter a new golden age. But the hard-won peace is marred by rumblings of trouble on the horizon and the shadow of the ancient curse.From Jesse Thatcher's run-in with a grizzled mountain man to Kate Carnegie's quest to bring justice to a pair of hapless brothers, the Western Territory becomes a stage for desperate deeds and unlikely heroes. Yet, unknown to all but a few, this season of range wars, breakneck rides, lone gunslingers, and gentle romances is building to a deadly day that will alter the territory and its people forever.

"Look kid, it's like this. The Iron City's one of your one-way streets. Only one direction this thing goes, and that's down. If you get lucky-real lucky-and that street goes two ways for even a split second, you go. You don't stop, you don't think, you don't hesitate. You run for it." Industry, glory, and the Games are the coinage of the Empire, but here in the Iron City, there is no glory. Factories run on despair, office doors hide criminal corruption, and the Iron City Wolves have no chance at victory in the glittering world beyond-until the day they do. When Jackson Van of the Golden City Toros finds himself exiled to the Iron City in disgrace, he resolves not to go down without a fight. After meeting down-and-out captain Atlas Bolton, once the toast of the Black Town Stags, Van joins him in lighting a fire in the hearts of the Wolves, who are now determined-despite brutal odds-to put the Iron City back on the map.