Ephraim's Curious Device

Wizard Kadmeion struggles with getting his magician-for-hire business off the ground. With their funds running low, and his familiar Furgo missing, the wizard and his clockmaker assistant Sir Bright answer a summons from a powerful local lord. Finally, they have a job.
Not true. His Lordship has kidnapped Furgo. Kadmeion must find the magical gadget called Ephraim’s Curious Device and use it to buy Furgo’s freedom. He and Bright have a few short weeks before the noble executes Kadmeion’s familiar.

With no information except a coded map, clues lead them to an oracle’s riddle with three impossible tasks. Even worse, they must go to one of the dying lands--a floating island heading for oblivion in the Rim Winds of their plate-shaped world. The island’s magic has soured, and Kadmeion struggles to save his companions and the island’s desperate fey-folk.

Fighting off seductive swamp inhabitants who feed on wizard’s flesh, and keeping His Lordship’s thick-witted bodyguards from getting them all killed, are constant inconveniences. Bloodthirsty harpies and worse opponents delay Kadmeion and Bright from locating Ephraim’s Curious Device and saving their kidnapped friend.

The wizard and his clockworks man know that time is not on their side. They must deliver Ephraim’s Curious Device to His Lordship before time runs out. If they fail, then tick tock. Furgo dies.