Living temporarily in Venice, three American siblings uncover a mystery surrounding magical objects, an Arabian Nights book, and animals that can walk in and out of paintings. >When Jared, Shireen, and Miranda are each given one glittering gift from an old Venetian shopkeeper, they never fathomed the powers they are now able to unleash; they never expected that their very reality is about to be utterly upended. And the adventure has hardly begun. >For in another time, centuries earlier, another trio--Rashid, Maria, and Francesca--have been thrown together under terrible circumstances: They have been kidnapped and, along with hundreds of other children, will be sold into child slavery. Unless, that is, they can find some way to save them all. >But all their fates lie in the hands of Jared, Shireen, and Miranda. The future--and the lives--of these three very modern children become entirely intertwined with those of the children from the past. Danger, it seems, has a way of spanning centuries.