Her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria still rules New England and her American Possessions; the Royal Navy rules the skies with its mighty Airships; and Earth still turns on God's great brass gears of Heaven as it makes its orderly passage around the Lamp of the Sun from Midnight to Midnight and Year to Year.In the town of New Haven, a young man is apprenticed to a Clockmaker to learn a Profession and an Art that owes as much to God as to Man.But Hethor's life is set on a new course one strange night. He wakes to find a living brass Angel in his attic room, great wings sweeping to the low rafters. The Angel tells him that he has been Chosen. The Mainspring of Earth is running down and must be rewound by Man. He, Hethor, must take the Key Perilous, find the place where the Mainspring may be rewound, and save Earth.As a token, the Angel leaves Hethor a fine silver feather from his wing. Hethor's blood from the knife edge of the feather is proof enough that this is not a dream.From innocence and ignorance to power and self-knowledge, this unlikely young man must make the long and perilous journey to the South Polar Axis to fulfill the commandment of his God. Read Less