Stone City

Book excerpt: The rock--her rock--the city's landmark, stood alone at attention beyond the gate, comforting Miranda as she reminisced that time of change she had come to hate. Miranda's youthful optimism shines amid the gray, hopeless city she calls home. The city of laughter and beauty her parents once lived in no longer exists. In its place stands a stone city, devoid of quality and life, brought to ruin years earlier by a charming yet deceitful stranger whose promises of utopia turned when he became a dictator of the people. Although he was now gone, Stone City remained just that--a stony shell of a town. Guarding the city is Miranda's only source of comfort--a landmark symbolic of the splendor her city once held. A new arrival in town stirs curiosity and suspicion, especially when he begins work in the center of the city, using Miranda's beloved stone as the building block of his construction. Who is Santara? What plans does he have for the once great Stone City?