Laurelei's Garden

"... I was falling into a cavern of memories, ruby gems bleeding from the rocks, until there was nothing but the darkness and a large pool of water to splash in. I was trapped. I could no longer hold on to the earth, floating face down in the water, and eventually I was separated even from myself in the dark, dismal cave."

To complete his Oath of Valor, gentle yet clumsy Florent Everley sets off to prove his skills in the mountains beyond his seaside home. With his heroic cousin to guide him, the fourteen-year-old's trial seems a sure success. But when a strange twist of fate leaves his cousin injured, the two seek refuge in the village of Noe.

Cursed with an endless rain, Noe is flooded with more than water. Memories surface like ghosts, and Florent finds himself witness to a history solemn and ancient. Perhaps even stranger than the village are its residents: an elusive grave keeper who stalks Florent's nightmares, a fiery innkeeper whose husband is missing, an elderly scholar with no arms, and a blacksmith who ventured across the ocean to this unmapped village to find his friend.

To solve the mysteries of Noe and its inhabitants, Florent must remember what he does not know. Yet with every new thread of the past unearthed, Florent risks discovering the truth-and it may just bury his future.