Having escaped the Dark Prince Avarat's forces on Earth, Joe explodes from the Majia Gate into the beautiful but deadly realm of Antigol. Seperated from his best friend Reece, the strange muttering madman Shambling Sam, and worse still, the jaw-dropping warrior child, Kinga, his sworn protector, Joe stumbles, lost and alone, through a bewildering, exotic world. Soon he is fighting for his life against tentacled, man-eating plants, and savage demonic hounds, before being rescued by Antigol's most powerful witch, the Ice Queen. Beautiful and silken voiced, she quickly ushers Joe to the safety of her towering Ice Palace, offering him shelter and a feast of mouth watering food, keen to prove that Antigol can also be a place of kindness and beauty. But there is something wrong... Why does the Queen's smile never reach her eyes ? Why do her servants quake whenever she is near ? And why is she so interested in the birthmark on the back of Joe's hand ?

Joe just wants to be left alone. He is happy with his ordinary life in the small village of Cardenfield, having his dinner with his Aunt and Uncle in front of the X Factor, and playing on his X-Box. But Joe doesn't know the truth about his life. He doesn't know that his father is a King in the magical world of Antigol. He doesn't know that a war rages there, and the dark Prince Avarat has sworn to find the boy who robbed him of his destiny. As Christmas approaches, the snow blanketed streets of Cardenfield shake with the arrival of towering, monstrous bone wytches, striding over houses and peeling back roofs. The skies split as fire belching emerald dragons soar from the clouds, searching... for Joe. With his best friend, and serial-suspendee from the local school, Reece, and the sour-faced polish girl, Kinga, Joe escapes into Antigol, where he realises things will never be the same again. ------------------------------------------- Why does the Dark Prince seek Joe ? Who is the mysterious wizard Maven ? But most importantly, whose voice whispers inside Joe's head, and what is the strange searing pain which burns through his chest whenever he is in danger ? Perhaps it has something to do with the peculiar little birthmark on the back of his hand, known to everyone he meets in Antigol as "The Mark of Four"

"Leaving the house for her blind date with the mysterious Doctor Andrew, 43 year old Ella was a wild, untamed gypsy goddess, but sitting outside Chequers, sipping cold coffee, she wonders why her reflection reminds her so much of Ken Dodd." A tale of men, women, and desperation. Also includes the bonus story, "Adrift," a short tale of marital decay and the inevitable carcrash of a child leaving home. ------------------------------------------