Jonathan Mills: 2 books

When a young guardsman appears at their door late one night, Esther Lanark and her family are thrown into a world of fear, war, and ancient, dark magic, a world where firedrakes ravage the land, strange shadowmen stalk the woods, and where a witch from the far north has awoken from her long sleep, to wreak her revenge on the old empire.

Nearly a year has passed since Esther Lanark fought the Witch of Glenaster, but she is still not safe. As the ward of Lord Fyra, the empire's most powerful man, she has a comfortable life, but is effectively a prisoner, homesick and grieving for those she has lost, until one day an old friend...