Some things are worth crossing different worlds for.
When a snowstorm traps a young Gabriella high in the frozen peaks of Manatua, she takes shelter in a mountain cave - and finds she's not alone. Elliot, an elephant adventurer on a desperate quest, has been searching for the companion he lost and fighting to avoid the inevitable curse of the Aygar. The curse is tightening. Time is running out. And neither of them can reach where they need to go alone.
So they make a promise: Gabriella will help Elliot find his adventurer so he can have a second chance of reaching Gideon, and Elliot will help Gabriella get home to meet Izzy - the family's first grandchild. With this promise however, Manatua doesn't persist and a promise kept means Gabriella's pathway falls into Elliot's, and they find themselves starting deep in the thorny world of the Tahlen, deep on Iyanwa, far away from home, and right on top of his own failed path.
Iyanwa is not a land that simply lets you pass through. It is shaped by the fates of those who cross it. To reach Gideon, Elliot must face the shadows of a past he has long avoided. And Gabriella must reckon with her own - the ghosts of family, of loss, and of the bonds that stretch across distance and time.
It will take courage. It will take honesty. And it will take a village of unlikely companions to see their dreams come true.
Fahli is a middle-grade fantasy about kinship, loss, and the extraordinary lengths we go to for the people we love.
