<P><B>''Coggan invites you to be with characters who, for all the magic and wonder of the world she creates, are entirely relatable - women bound by duty and justice, love and fear, trying to find their own paths in a world not of their making. It gave me hope; it made me cry. It''s a fantastically good book.'' - Claire North, author of <I>The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August</I></B><br><br>In a quiet street far from the river, with an ancient tree growing through its walls and floors, is the House of the Dead. There lives the witchling: healer, midwife and conduit between the world of the living and the world below. A witchling must give up her family and friends and spend her life alone, tending to the sick and carrying the dead down dark tunnels to the underworld.<br><br>Haley was born with the gift of death-magic, and at the age of seven her mother abandons her to the witchling to be raised as her successor. But as Haley grows older and learns her craft - as invading armies pass