The Source of Fire

Jens Anders is ambitious, and reckless in his desire to make a name for himself by finding a wonder on the other side of the world and presenting it to the genius empress Celandine. He takes along his long-suffering childhood friend, Alun, and hires a mysterious translator, Aena, who has her own reasons for coming on the voyage.

Jens does find a wonder: a statue or artefact of unknown origin and powers, and brings it back. But something terrible and destructive follows it, under land and sea, half-way across a world that isn't ready for the implications of where it came from, to the one intellect who might be. But Celandine already has enough things to worry about.

The Source of Fire is the sequel to The Silk Mind