Chapter 1
The Glasslands
The Gramarye Region
Grand Quillia
June 1856
As Professor Hilary Rickenbacker steered his pony through the Glasslands in the sunlight, the Gargoyle Key in a pouch on his belt, he felt like he was riding in starlight, through constellations in daytime. Each tree had been turned to quartz, each leaf to glass, every blade of grass to amber. The sound of the leaves recalled xylophones playing a gentle ode to delicacy. It was indeed magical.
He looked up at the spire of the Cathedral of Tales rising high above the treetops of the Glasslands and wondered what the Gargoyle Key would reveal to them on their arrival, should they survive the journey. One road cut through the glacial forest, Aspic Lane, now deserted since the Trade had built a slideway bypassing the enti
