Arcanum: The Altar of the Gorgon

“The Altar of Gorgons” is the second book by Yevgeny Gagloev in the youth fantasy series “Arcanum.” We’re back in a world with an unusual city, Saint-Erynburg—full of everything mysterious and frightening. But now, away from the bustling megapolis, it’s the warm grasp of the hot resort New Ingersham, where the twins Lera and Maksim have arrived with their parents.

Here they get caught in a whirlwind of mysterious events, and it all begins when a centuries-old, time-blackened ship is washed ashore…

A secret life is seething in the endless tunnels stretching under New Ingersham, in the ominous abandoned sanatorium, and in scientific laboratories. Who is Dan, whom Lera and Maksim find on the seashore? The mysterious Madame Anait, the Commissarov family, the adventurer Bestuzhev—apparently, they have big plans for the guys. But what do they want? Perhaps the hint lies in an ancient diary, or in the log entries of the Arcanum ship, or in the nightmares haunting Lera and Maksim.

The past is already reaching for them with its grasping tentacles—there’s no hiding from it.