Lebi us Maragalius, a P ragsburg mage, necromancer, alchemist, and mechanicus, is hiding from the Kaiser and the Inquisition in the domains of Margrave Alfred the Sorcerer. At the Niderburg tournament, called for a reason and not inviting everyone, an unbreakable steel golem goes up against the knights of Ostland. In the grave-murder halls of the Oberland castle, where death is worse than simply death, dark experiments of forbidden arts are performed. In the dungeons, where animal laws of survival rule, prisoners lose their human form from fear and hatred. And in the castle courtyard, executioner work is carried out by mechanical hands. Gerdon’s proud Pfalzgrave Dipold the Glorious must survive where survival is impossible—and escape from the place from which living people do not escape. But perhaps he will be helped. Only who? And, most importantly, why?