1588: rumours reach Queen Elizabeth's court of the reappearance of a legendary doomsday device. Originally from the East, its power has been fabled for millennia. Last used by the Moors when they invaded Spain, it had been lost for centuries but now Walsingham's spies believe it has surfaced in Seville, where Philip of Spain's men are frantically trying to track it down - their intention to use it in a plot to murder England's queen.
Will Swyfte - swordsman, adventurer, scholar, rake, and the greatest of this new breed of spy - uncovers a plot within a plot that has, at its dark heart, the venomous world of Faerie. It seems the Unseelie Court wants the device for its own nefarious ends: to launch a devastating attack on England in revenge for the capture of the Faerie Queen.
Caught in a deadly race against time, Will journeys from London to Edinburgh, to Seville and finally to Venice in pursuit of the fiendish device as Philip's Armada prepares for its naval assault on England, providing cover for the Faerie world's even more deadly, magickal attack...
