In the city of Tarian, where mastery over the tides is essential for the city’s very existence, an unforeseen and unthinkable thing has happened. The Master of Tides—Tarian’s guardian for over seven hundred years—has died, and the Sand Coin, the object that gives the Master his power, has vanished into the shadows.
With the Sand Coin missing and Tarian under threat from an impending cataclysmic event, Cora, a spirited orphan girl laboring in the city’s Water Works, embarks on a desperate quest to save her city.
Along with Will, her charming yet unwelcome companion, Cora discovers that to find the Sand Coin, she must join the magical Wandering Circus. But who in this mysterious and dangerous troupe of young performers can she trust? And how far will Cora have to travel with the circus in order to bring the Sand Coin home?
The twelve stories contained in this volume introduce the reader to the world of Hibaria and the Islands. It is a world of magic and mystery, of dragons and sea serpents, a world where the Sky Lords - the Constellations - can take physical form and walk the land. It is a world in which an ancient evil, long imprisoned, threatens to break free.
The central characters in these stories are children and young adults who grapple with fear and sorrow, loss and longing, and who are given the opportunity to choose courage and hope. Their individual stories weave together to begin to tell a larger narrative.
