Exiled in the court docket of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for days gone by year. But Mal harbours a darker magic formula: he and his twin brother share a spirit that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical animals from the New Globe. When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean demonstrates reality, it models him on the path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice – and a discord of loyalties which will place him and his close friends in greater risk than ever.