From the publishers blurb:
The terrible storms ravaging the fertile land of Romagna have wiped out entire villages in the countries along the Byzantine coast. In the markets and around the hearths of the Empire, whispers spread that these are the restless spirits of the Best of Fano, the ringer paladins Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Carignano, brutally slaughtered by Malatestino I Malatesta, the brilliant and cruel Lord of Arminum.
The incessant floods engulfing the region have forced the young Maddalena Malatesta, the wicked Lord’s niece, to leave Montefiore Conca Castle without her cat, Cerasus. Since Maddalena was brought to the ancestral Malatesta residence, she has grown weaker and weaker, yearning only for the company of her little companion. The company of soldiers from the house, sent by her father Ferrantino to recover the cat, never returned from the mission. Psychic storms prevent any form of foresight around the castle, which has been shrouded in a shadow of terror for days. Lord Malatestino I Malatesta has decided to enlist a group of assorted heroes to retrieve little Cerasus. But is that his only objective? And why did the previous expedition never return?