The Foundling's Tale

Foundling begins the journey of Rossamund, a boy with a girl's name, who is just about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor. What starts as a simple journey is threatened by encounters with monsters - and people, who may be worse. Learning who to trust and who to fear is neither easy nor without its perils, and Rossamund must choose his path carefully.

Foundling Rossamünd Bookchild, sworn into the Emperor's Service as an apprentice lamplighter, is finding his training at Winstermill Fortress difficult and lonely. His life is further complicated by the arrival of a young wit, determined to spite her famous mother by becoming a lowly lantern-stick. As Rossamünd begins to make new friends in this sinister world, he also seems to make more enemies, finding himself pushed towards a terrible destiny, a fate beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

Spirited away from Winstermill by the aristocratic monsterslayer, Europe, Rossamünd is still struggling with the truth of his origins. But self-doubt will have to wait as he plunges headlong into the fulgar’s day-to-day life of political manoeuvring, high society, and well-paid monster-hunting. Exposed to the seamier side of Brandenbrass society, Rossamünd finds himself facing the gravest dangers in his young life, and these will test his mettle and that of the Branden Rose in the ultimate battle against their enemies, the black-hearted schemers who would destroy them both.