Cart and Cwidder

One ancient instrument. A perilous journey across a divided land. Deadly secrets on the road.

Cart and Cwidder is the first in the best-selling Dalemark Quartet of books and tells the story of Moril and his brother and sister who are travelling musicians journeying through Dalemark, until one day they pick up a mysterious passenger.

Soon young Moril discovers that his father's songs carry secret messages between divided lands. When their cheerful father Clennen entrusts Moril with a great, ancient cwidder passed down from their ancestor Osfameron, the boy has no idea what powers sleep within its strings.

Somehow Moril's family and the stranger are becoming bound together in terror, flight, and music. Left to steer their garish pink-and-gold cart through hostile southern lordships, Moril and his spirited sister Brid must dodge Earl Tholian's watchful hearthmen and race for the safety of the northern mountains.

As hostile soldiers close in on the road north, who can Moril trust to guide them across the border?

• Coming of Age: Young Moril must leave behind his dreamy childhood to uncover the true, dangerous power humming inside his inherited instrument.
• Sibling Dynamics: Together with practical, hot-tempered Brid and anxious older brother Dagner, Moril navigates unfamiliar towns and sudden peril without their parents.
• High-Stakes Flight: Travelling across hostile southern lordships in a brightly painted cart, the children race toward the mountains before Earl Tholian's army catches them.
• Ancient Magic: The legendary cwidder once played by Osfameron awakens to genuine truth, turning ordinary songs into powerful spells.
• Also by This Author: Castle in the Air, The Crown of Dalemark and Drowned Ammet.