Imaginarium Geographica

An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the first World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica: an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale.

It has been nine years since John, Jack, and Charles had their great adventure in the Archipelago of Dreams, and became the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. Now, they have been brought together again to solve a mystery: someone is kidnapping the children of the Archipelago. And their only clue is a mysterious message delivered by a strange girl with artificial wings: "The Crusade has begun". Worse, they discover that all of the legendary Dragonships have disappeared as well.

On a September evening in 1931, John and Jack, two of the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica, discover a plea for help on a medieval manuscript - which seems to have been written by their friend, Hugo Dyson! When they rush to warn him, Hugo walks through a door in time - and vanishes into the past. And in that moment, the world begins to change.

World War II has been raging for three years, but a more terrible evil is just over the horizon. The last stones are falling from the Keep of Time, and the Imperial Cartological Society, led by Richard Burton, has collected doors and is building a new tower at the request of an old enemy: the Winter King's shadow. He has a terrible weapon -- the Spear of Destiny -- that can be used to command the shadows of anyone it touches.

Seven years after the events of The Shadow Dragons, John, Jack, and Charles are finally able to return to their beloved Archipelago of Dreams. But even as their return is celebrated by old friends, new concerns shadow the reunion: the threat of Ecthroi, primordial Shadow. And perhaps even worse, the apparent splintering of Time itself.