Ruby's little better than a street urchin when she's dockside, pick-pocketing and swindling marks with Gwath, her favorite member of her father's ship crew.
But her mother, who she can barely remember, left her a legacy she must unravel, once others begin to seek it -- and her, as its keeper -- out.
In a world with alchemical magic, called chemystry, she quickly gains a protector -- Lord Athen, who is anything other than what he seems.
But he's no match for the Royal Navy and their automaton creatures, which chase down her father's ship, the Thrift. Her father and his crew are taken prisoner, all but Gwath, who shapeshifts into a barrel, and Ruby's thinks she's escaped.
She'll just swindle the grungy-looking tug boat operator. She quickly learns he's no ordinary seaman. He's a Reeve, none other than His Majesty's Lord Wisdom Rool, who uncannily somehow reminds her of Gwath. He's a formidable opponent and darn-near impossible to defeat or slip past. Gwath fights to free Ruby and is seemingly killed, and Ruby slips onto shore, Rool hot on her heels.
She escapes Rool and bounces from custody in a mystical society to the strange, introverted wizard Fermat. Through it all, Ruby's looking for help, but she keeps encountering a hunger for her mother's secret -- whatever that is.
By the end, she and the rag-tag group of followers she's picked up along the way try to rescue her father from the Royal Navy-- Lord Athen and her man, Cram, and Fermat's chemystry apprentice, Henry.
And it might've worked, if Rool hadn't stepped into the picture. In the end, Ruby saves them all -- but I won't spoil the ending and tell how. Just know, Ruby still hasn't discovered her mother's secret.
Enjoy!
Ruby's willingly under Rool's control now, and she discovers the Reeve means to use her secret -- whatever it is -- against the crown's mounting enemies any way he can.
He takes her back to the Reeve training grounds, where orphans are taught the "works" of a Reeve and how to be the best, merciless, loyal fighters possible.
Rool also hands her over to Dr. Swedenborg, who is supposedly trying to find the key to unlock her secret for the crown. The doctor slowly discovers the secret in Ruby -- literally, in her blood. It's an equation, imbued in her by her chemystry mother, but what it describes or the device it unlocks takes the rest of the book to develop. Dr. Swedenborg has no intention of handing it over to the crown, however.
Ruby's friends, Lord Athena, her servant Cram, the chemystry apprentice Henry, and her father and his crew all set out after her. They get split up, and one half journeys into the mountains, where Henry sets the forest afire with chemystry and they barely survive in a giant beaver's underwater lodge.
They finally find Ruby's mother, and discover the horrific secret she's hidden in Ruby's blood -- a device for draining a person's life spark. They rush off to rescue Ruby, but not before they pick up a group of mercenaries, led by Alla Ferra, who are more than a match for the Reeves. Still, they may arrive too late to help Ruby.
At the Reeve training ground, alliances shift as Ruby's secret gets out and Lord Captain Rool and other Reeves reveal where their true allegiances lie. Ruby's sole friend -- the doctor's apprentice, Evram, -- pays the ultimate price when his horse-like automaton, Sleipnir, fights for Ruby's life.
I won't ruin the ending, just know, they're all barreling toward the next book by the end of this one. Ruby's "riddle" has been thoroughly solved, exposed and set loose to do its damage on the world.
The last book pits Ruby against Doctor Swedenborg, who's cleverly modified the life-force draining device so it takes the person's free will, as well, making their lifeless husks little more than zombies willing to do his every bidding.
Ruby rallies every ally she can -- from the secret societies to the wizards Fermat -- but it's not enough. It will never be enough, not as long as the infernal device deceives people and makes it pleasant to "give up" their lives to ... nothing.
Finally, when the Doctor steals the life-force of several Reeve, one manages to resist, and helps Ruby undo some of the evil they've let loose in the colonies.
A satisfying end to the saga, and well worth your summer reading!
