The seal needs nine. One family is refusing. And the world's oldest wound has a deadline. Six weeks after closing the door under Prague, Mia Bellamy, Theo, and Nikolai follow a nine-dot wheel across Asia - and discover Europe was only the first chapter. In the East, a second order of Custodians guards nine stones bound into the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army, and the wonders of the wider world. Their keeper has vanished into the same enchanted sleep that nearly took Mia's grandfather. And their last young sentinel, Wei Zhu, is missing the one stone that matters - held for sixty years by a family that won't forgive what the Zhus did to theirs. The rite demands nine keepers standing together. Wei has one. The boy holding the ninth stone is thirteen, furious, and has just told the entire world - on live television - that his family will never stand. Worse: Casimir Vane is back. Leaner. Colder. No longer stealing stones - curating truth. He's given the angry boy a folder of verified facts and built him a courtroom, and this time there isn't a single lie for the stones to catch. Nine cities. Nine stones. Five days. And one sentence sixty years late. Inside this adventure, readers will find:Real history in every riddle - wolf-smoke beacons, an army where no two faces are alike, a castle never taken by force, and a ghost who counts to nine A ticking clock - nine beacon fires are going dark, one stair at a time Brains over brawn - the villain can't be out-fought, only out-thought A team worth rooting for - a puzzle-solver, a walking encyclopedia, an archivist, and a keeper who never learned to ask for help A fast-paced middle-grade mystery adventure filled with ancient secrets, puzzles, history, family conflict, friendship, and a race across Asia. Start with The Whispering Stones - or dive in here. The stones will catch you up. The wheel is missing one keeper. Hurry.