Victoria Strauss

At the heart of the Fortress lay the Garden. At the heart of the Garden lay the Stone....

Once, they were the keepers of the Stone, the most sacred object on earth, from which all the powers of Mind are drawn....

Artistically brilliant, Giulia is blessed - or cursed - with a spirit’s gift: she can hear the mysterious singing of the colors as she creates them in the convent workshop of Maestra Humilitá....

When 17-year-old Giulia, the orphaned, illegitimate daughter of a Milanese nobleman, learns she’s to be packed off to a life behind convent walls, she begs an astrologer-sorcerer for a talisman....