Publisher's Synopsis
Airlann. The Source Isle of Magic. It is the Age of Autumn, the island locked in slow, beautiful death. Nine hundred years have passed since Jerrod II, last of the Goblin Kings, was assassinated by a child. After centuries of tyranny, the bloody days of human rule still haunt the long memories of the Fae. Their resplendent bastions have dwindled despite the peace, all but replaced by the superstitious squalor of mortal Man. The human peasantry cowers in remote villages, defending themselves with weapons of iron. The Red Caps, a fanatical army of goblins, have marshaled once more, intent on returning Jerrod's tyrannical bloodline to power. Padric, a human farmhand and friend to the Fae, finds himself in the midst of the growing war. Rosheen, an alluring piskie and Padric's lifelong friend, struggles to help him survive. They ally themselves with Deglan Loamtoes, a bigoted gnome herbalist, and Pocket, a changeling orphan fostered by the avian Knights of the Valiant Spur. Beset from all sides by vengeful skin-changers, bloodthirsty marauders and fire-crazed fanatics, these four wayfarers must discover the true identity of Jerrod's long lost progeny before the goblins reawaken the genocidal soldiers of living iron known as the Forge Born. Can they lay aside their individual prejudices, reveal their long-held secrets, and work with those they distrust to prevent Airlann's annihilation? Can they stand together to find and destroy the last scion of the Goblin Kings?
