Thornyhold is a house deep in a wild wood like somewhere out of a fairy tale. Inheriting it is the beginning of a fairy tale for Geillis Ramsey. With the house she finds she is inheriting the mantle of her god-mother whose reputation was that of a wise-woman in a witch-infested region. Mary Stewart is author of the Merlin trilogy - The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment.