Twelve-year-old Malina and her younger brother Tymon find a mysterious compass in the forest, and it leads them toward a hidden world buried in the mist.
Malina had always suspected the forest behind their house was keeping a secret.
Each morning, mist drifted between the trees like pale ribbon, gathering in crooked paths and vanishing before anyone else could follow them. Most people in the village hurried past the edge of the woods without looking twice. Malina never could.
That chilly morning, she and her ten-year-old brother Tymon went farther than they usually dared. The air smelled of wet leaves and cold earth. Moss softened their footsteps, and the trees closed in around them until even the daylight seemed dim and far away.
Then Tymon stumbled.
"Look!" he whispered, crouching beside a patch of roots.
Half-buried in the ground was a small brass compass, dark with age. When Tymon lifted it, the needle spun wildly, faster and faster, as if it had lost its mind. Malina leaned closer. The tiny hand jerked once, then snapped to the east and stayed there.
Her breath caught.
"It wants us to go that way," she said.
Tymon gave her a nervous grin, but he was already stepping forward. They followed the compass through thicker brush and under branches beaded with cold mist. The deeper they went, the quieter the forest became, until even the birds seemed to have disappeared.
At last the trees opened.
Before them rose a line of steep hills, silvered by fog. Malina froze. She was certain they had never been there before. At the top of the highest hill stood a huge stone gate, half-swallowed by ivy and age.
The compass needle quivered in her hand.
A shape moved in the mist.
A boy stepped into view, taller than Malina expected, with emerald eyes and a cloak made of woven leaves. He looked at them as if he had been waiting for a long time.
"You finally came," he said. "The Guardians of the Misty Hills need you."
Malina's fingers tightened around the compass.
Behind the stone gate, something shifted. Then the gate began to open, and a blue light spilled through the crack into the mist.