In The Ruby Kingdom (Passage to Mythrin, Book 1), twelve-year-old Amelia Hammer was sent to live with her cousin, Simon, and their grandmother, Celeste, while her engineer parents flew off to a six-month job in Peru. Dumped in tiny Dunstone, Ontario, in midwinter, Amelia expected to die of boredom.
Simon wasn’t having much fun either, saddled with this sulky intruder in black leather and neon hair gel, but with the help of his best friend, Ike, he tried to make her feel at home.
The night of Amelia’s arrival, they found Mara on their apartment roof, as if she’d dropped from the sky. Tall, proud, and fearless, she was also completely ignorant of the most ordinary things — like what clothes are for, and how to get water from a tap. Amelia instantly resolved to protect and shelter her. Simon reluctantly went along with the secret, but he worried Mara was mixed up in something illegal and dangerous.
They began to realize just how dangerous Mara was when she tangled with the Assassin, a nice-looking gentleman apt to change into something slithery with razor-sharp claws.
Mara’s true origin came out when Amelia, Simon, and Ike fetched her a library book. The library was in another world, and the three barely escaped with their lives. They learned that Mara was the young new chief of the Urdar, a race of powerful, winged shape-changers. She was exiled to this world by her upstart brother, who sent the Assassin to finish her off.
As part of a plan to ambush Mara by stealing Amelia’s appearance, the Assassin tricked Amelia’s spirit out of her body and into Mara’s home world, where she was forced into the form of the Urdar. She soon took to her strong new body with enthusiasm. But Simon, who had grown fond of his difficult cousin, followed her into the other world, along the way saving Mara from the Assassin’s trap.
Simon discovered that if Amelia didn’t come home soon, her human body in this world would die, and she would have to remain one of the Urdar forever. Being one of the Urdar was Amelia’s dream of freedom and excitement come true. She put off choosing until the last minute, when Mara’s people started to block the gate between the worlds. It was Simon’s only way home. Amelia flew him there just in time, only to find the Assassin, who bore a grudge, barring the way. She hurled Simon through the fading gate and turned to fight the Assassin alone.
That sent Amelia on one more journey. With Mara as guide, she travelled the dream between life and death. Given a last chance to choose where she belonged, Amelia chose humanity.
It was hard to say goodbye to Mara. A final goodbye? Maybe not. “There are other doors,” Mara said, before sending Amelia home.