The Striding Spire

Charlotte E. English Fantasy

Old Magick. New World.

In 2017, little remains of magick save scattered, beleaguered pockets of magickal community and scholarship - and a vast, but rapidly decaying, heritage. How can any of it survive the pace of modern life?

As an agent of the Society for Magickal Heritage, Cordelia “Ves” Vesper has an important job: to track down and rescue endangered magickal creatures, artefacts, books and spells wherever they are to be found. It’s a duty that takes her the length and breadth of Britain, and frequently gets her into trouble. But somebody’s got to keep magick alive in the modern world, and Ves is more than equal to the job.

Fresh from an involuntary crash course in the Stranger Arts, Ves has a new mystery to solve: the inexplicable reappearance of an extinct species. The Dappledok Pup has not been seen in the flesh since the eighteenth century - so how does one come to be found, weak but alive, over two hundred years later? A creature with a unique talent for sniffing out treasure, no less, and that can’t be a coincidence.

Where did the pup come from - and is there something sinister afoot? Aided by a talking book, a spriggan with a taste for vintage fashion and the best Waymaster in the business, nothing can stop Ves from finding out the truth. Can it?

Unfold