Fifteen-year-old Peak Marcello is invited to participate in an "International Peace Ascent" in the Hindu Kush, with a team made up of under-eighteen-year-old climbers from around the world--but from the first something seems wrong, so when the group is attacked, and most of the climbers are either killed or kidnapped, Peak finds himself caught up in a struggle to survive, shadowed by the Shen, a mysterious snow leopard.

"Mountain-climbing prodigy Peak Marcello faces his toughest challenge yet as he descends into Tibet and goes head-to-head with an old enemy"--

A novice witch, a polar bear familiar, and a murder under the Northern Lights. Ever since I was little, unusual things have happened around me. But nothing quite as strange as a wild polar bear coming to my rescue and telling me I'm a witch. Even though I grew up a California girl, the unexplored tundra of the Great North has called to me since childhood. On her visits, my grandmother would tell me stories of magical creatures and great battles...