IN THE DARK of winter in the town of Fulworth, an old man named Thorston has devoted his life to the illegal practice of alchemy in the quest to uncover the Great Secret: of making gold, and of immortality. Yet just as he is on the brink of a discovery, he keels over, nearly dead. Thorton's servant, Sybil, and his talking raven, Odo, are filled with dread: will they be thrown out into the streets to fend for themselves? Their only hope is to discover the alchemist's secret and learn to make gold. And according to their master's last garbled words, the secret has something to do with a green-eyed child, the mysterious Book Without Words, and three sweet-smelling stones in the foul muck at the bottom of a cauldron... From Avi, the 2003 Newbery Award-winning author of "Crispin: The Cross of Lead," comes the story of Thorston, an alchemist who works to concoct a potion that will enable him to live forever—and keep dying and rising from the dead as a result.