Foundling: Monster-Blood Tattoo, Book One
The vast lands of the Half-Continent bear the scars of centuries of conflict between humans and monsters. Only the hardiest souls now travel the inland ways: merchants, Imperial messengers and - bravest of all - the monster-hunters. To be a hunter takes great cunning and extraordinary skill, for the creatures are as deadly as they are varied. Bogles, rever-men, grinnlings and nickers - any one can kill a human quicker than thought.
Not that Rossamünd Bookchild should worry. The orphan boy with the girl's name lives safe within the walls of Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Safe, at least, until the day he is recruited into the service of the Empire by a strange man with wrong-coloured eyes. This is his story.
This edition includes the EXPLICARIUM, a complex illustrated guide to the Half-Continent, including over one hundred pages of classified data, appendices and maps revealing the peculiarities of the realm of MONSTERS, the true methodology of monster-hunters, and the many tricks of the DARK TRADES.
The Half-Continent is a perilous world where cunning monster-hunters battle deadly creatures like bogles and nickers, while most seek safety behind fortified walls. In Foundling, the first book of the Monster Blood Tattoo series, orphan Rossamünd Bookchild’s quiet life is upended when he’s recruited into the Empire’s service, setting him on a thrilling journey into danger and destiny.