It’s 1683. Wars and rumors of wars.

Two teenage boys live at an Abbey outside Vienna and work as trumpeters for the choir. Trumpets are used as signals for all sorts of things in that time–in the military and in the Church.

When the Ottoman Turks make their way to the doorstep of Vienna, all is chaos and the two boys are separated. One goes with their prefect to make sure the younger boys are safe in the hills, and the other goes into the city and ends up staying there throughout the siege.

At last (literally) the cavalry arrives, the Turks and their allies are defeated and Vienna is freed. And never again do the Turks advance on Christendom/Europe. Both boys in the story play critical roles in some part of the action–inserted in a believable way into the bigger story of the war.

by Hertha Pauli
From the Clarion books series. This is a reprint from a book published in 1961.