Czar Guidon kept his son Safa imprisoned in a tower. His power could only be matched by the witch-girl Chingis. Out of the frozen wastes she studied the words and runes that would give her power to understand the messages of the ghost drum. At last she heard Safa's cries...This book was awarded the 1987 Library Association's Carnegie Medal.

A tale of how Ambrosi challenges the call of a shaman to be his apprentice and how the repercussions of his defiancé culminates in a thrilling journey to the Gate of the Ghost World.

Unable to stand by and do nothing while her Arctic homeland is plundered, a shaman's apprentice decides to uses her strong but still undeveloped power.