Magic can't solve your problems. It just makes them bigger. Too bad Raziel hasn't learned that yet. Everyone believes that Raziel's parents are long dead. Everyone but Raziel. He knows the flying city that took them 9 years ago is real. He is sure that if he can just find it, he can find them too. Using clues left in a journal his father left behind, Raziel's first step must be contacting a creature living in an ancient, abandoned fortress just a few miles away. To get to it, Raziel will need to use his developing knowledge of magic to find a way past the high walls and knights that guard his town andthrough the twisting forest paths filled with monsters lurking among the trees. Answers to questions that have tormented him for years are just within his reach, but suddenly Raziel is not the only one seeking the creature-someone from his town has made a terrible bargain for power, and the price is the creature's life. Raziel's journey to find his family will lead him through a brutal test against a horde of monsters, the demons of his past, and the scorn and disbelief of his community-but he will stop at nothing to discover the truth.