When a lone goblin researcher stumbles across an artifact containing a terrifying message--that the world is in grave and immediate peril--she scrambles to find help. A very unusual asteroid (one constructed as a cage for dragons) is headed straight for the planet, and Xenon is the only person in the world who knows. As she clambers across hill and dale with her quill, journal, and dwindling coin purse to untangle the mystery, she'll need plenty of luck to find the right clues and the right sort of help. Meanwhile, our heroes have their own problems. They have a bank to rob, a sea to cross, and a kingdom to infiltrate. Luckily, Rime is a wild mage--the laws of reality quiver when she gives them a stern look--and her guardian, Jonas, wields a reasonably sharp sword. But Rime is slipping ever closer to the abyss of madness, and Jonas is wanted for murder at their final port of call. To make matters worse, the mage-killing Hunt and its commander, Linus, follow the duo like a patient shadow, bent on Rime's destruction. When the wise are underfunded, the brave are overbooked, and the cruel are unconcerned, can the world be saved from destruction?