Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 078942519X, Hardcover)

In language as resonant as bells, a renowned novelist tells of young courage outwitting old evil. To begin, a boy must confront a subtle witch, next, a great cat who sleeps with its eyes open, then , a giant oak encircled by wolves and a worm, all to reach the Well of the Wind. When the boy does not return, his sister starts out alone to seek him. "Who hates you so much that they send you there?" asks a thin stranger when he hears of her brother's quest. The girl journeys on, whistling, and comes to a gate between two trees in the wood of the witch, then a tower filled with rising water, a bird and a bow and arrow, and finally her brother, turned to stone. "We got from that," the girl tells the boy once she has freed him from the witch's enchantment. "Perhaps we shall get from this." Like all good endings, theirs is both surprising and perfect.