An Archaeological Mystery for Young Readers Mags O' Connor is on holiday in Italy where her archaeologist parents are excavating a Roman village. The dig unearths the graves of children, buried with rmysterious objects such as raven claws and puppy tails. A painting on a wall suggests the ancient inhabitants had tried to rid the village of plague with sorcery. Mags encounters a mysterious woman on the hillside and, together with her brother Richard and a local boy, Luca, discovers evidence in a secret chamber in the caves beyond the village, that ancient sorcery may not be dead. Mags dreams of the lost plague victims who beg her to help them and unravels a trail of sorcery which has destroyed generations of the town's children. She must defeat the darkness, or many more victims will be swept to the grave and beyond - to a fate far worse than death.