High in the crumbling Palace of Statues, oily Vox Verlix
- nominally the Most High Academe but no more than a prisoner in reality
- is brewing a terrible plot to destroy the goblins & the shrykes at a stroke, leaving him free to take over once again. Rook Barkwater, a young librarian knight, stumbles upon the truth when he is taken captive & forced to work for Vox. But can Rook foil Vox's plan & save the lives of his librarian colleagues?
Part of the Rook trilogy set fifty years later than the events of the Twig sequence
- & filled with fascinating new characters & settings that will enthral fans of the series.