Publisher's Synopsis
Kyle Yates, a 14-year-old orphan, is adopted by Diabolos Je Rouge, to line in the sprawling Sevenoakes Manor. Since he is the newest resident of the manor, he must participate in a seven-year ritual know as The Festival. Je Rouge takes Kyle on a tour of the manor and its grounds. Statues of young boys and girls, each in different period clothing, decorate the manor. The next morning The Festival begins. The object of The Festival is to win ten tasks and receive ten keys. At the end of the contest, Kyle must make a potion that will reveal the correct key. Once found, the statues come to life, and the past participants will be freed to return to their own time. But should Kyle fail, he, too, will become imprisoned as a stone statue until another challenger arrives to free him. The last participant to free the participants, Melvin Horton, won The Festival but failed to free one girl. Kyle is helped by two dwarfs, Enov and Gladys, and the ghosts of the part participants who tell of the young lady kept in glass from the first Festival of over two-hundred years ago. Now Kyle's determination is to rescue the young girl and free the past participants. But the challenges stand in his way: ghosts, attacked by flying objects, evil gargoyles, a lake monster, flying daggers, and the constant nagging advice by others to quit.
