What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read this book back when I was in the seventh grade and the title eludes me still. The book was set in a fantasy universe complete with a barbarian king and his princess. The princess wants to be a warrior along side her father and constantly puts herself into dangerous situations (i think) early in the book she meets a young wizard who specializes in healing magic who saves one of her soldiers. She invites the boy back to the castle and they make friends. Also in the book she encounters a Rat-King who she befriends and makes an ally of. There are, I believe 2 sequels to this book in the latest of which they have children. A daughter who is gifted magically, a set of twins, and a son who is deemed too weak to fight normally. The daughter wants to kill the son who gets all of the parents attention. The son goes on a quest to fined allies to his parents cause and eventually finds a style of fighting he is comfortable in. One of the twins dies and the remaining one befriends the son of the rat king. IF it helps any the youngest son grew accustomed to riding on zebras after visiting a desert styled country. I would appreciate any help I could get with this query the book meant quite a bit to me back then and I am pained not to remember it. Please help.

How long ago did you read the book Zack? Did it seem old or new when you read it? Do you remember anything about the cover?

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "How long ago did you read the book Zack? Did it seem old or new when you read it? Do you remember anything about the cover?"

Honestly, I'm not sure. The writing style seemed pretty modern but the cover escape me completely.

Zack stated in this thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... that the book was
The Cry of the Icemark

Cool--I'll just add this thread to the book and move this down to Solved then.

And holy COW--there are like 5 other descriptions that are totally different from each other for this book.

It was quite a memorable book. I really enjoyed reading it.