Twelve-year-old Mollineer Blackwater returns home to the Empire from beyond the edge of her world—from the mysterious land of the “barbarians,” the Rooskies, whom the Empire is slowly but surely pushing farther north.
Molly is endowed with the most dangerous gift of magic, forbidden in the Empire, and those who possess this gift are persecuted by the Special Department.
Will Molly manage to outplay them? Only by doing so can she save herself, her family, and her loyal friends.
The battleground becomes her native Nord-York—a city where luxury and poverty, military might and spy intrigues, gigantic steam machines and a dreadful fiery secret living in the underground all exist side by side.
But what is Molly to do when a new danger looms over her loved ones, and those who stand against the girl are above even the Special Department? Will Molly now manage to survive in her own world—a world ruled by steel, steam... and magic!