Her father may have sacrificed his own life to save hers, but heiress Gloria Meriwether-Astor is finding it difficult to forgive him. After all, how many yound ladies of her acquaintance will inherit wealth, beauty, and legacy of arms dealing? Now the Royal Kingdom of Spain and the Californias is about to declare war on the Texican Territory and Gloria simply will not allow it. In company with Alice Chalmers and the crew of Swan, along with a lost...

Rejoin the Librarian and the Chinese submarine captain, the British sailor, the clockwork man, and the young sorceress, who has gone south of the great equatorial wall. This adventure in Lake's Clockwork Earth continues the tale begun in Escapement.