The ensorceled gems that once held all humans in sway now power a hundred small kingdoms, but the monarchy of Mountfalcon is suddenly in dire peril. For the Queen has unwittingly lost the realm-sustaining, jeweled Chaos Machine — a castastrophe that could tear the kingdom apart. Captain of the Queen's Guard, Wilrowan Blackheart has been entrusted with the Machine's recovery — an undertaking that slowly reveals a horrific conspiracy spreading far beyond Mountfalcon's borders, as the deposed Maglore plot to reduce the unsuspecting human world to rubble and flames. But unbeknownst to him, another has also embarked on the same mission: a determined crusader of strength and substance...the only woman Blackheart has ever loved, but can never possess.

Bizarre things are happening in the little town of Hobb's Church, where Sera, Elsie, and Jedidiah are hiding from the vengeance of the Duchess. While Jed and the lensmaker Mr. Jonas construct a magical engine to raise a sunken island, the young ladies must deal with ghosts, hobgoblins, and a school of mischievous girls. On the other side of the world, Francis Skelbrooke decoys the Duchess's spies, leading them on a chase across the continent of Euterpe (stopping every now and then to bring a villain or two to account). But the vengeful fairy has other spies: one of them in Hobb's Church. THIS VOLUME ALSO CONTAINS THREE SHORT STORIES**

WHEN THE GOBLIN MOON RISES, STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN ... Coffins float down the river, hobgoblins emerge from their dens, alchemists pore over ancient texts in search of the secret of creating life, and one man fights a secret battle against cruelty and injustice, with wit, ingenuity, and a lethal lack of compunction. GUNPOWDER AND ALCHEMY supersede Sword and Sorcery in this swashbuckling tale of sorcery, witchcraft, mesmerism, animal magnetism, disguises, revenges, secret societies, and secret identities.