The Iron Crown

When mist from the Rhine crept over the stone walls of the estate, fifteen-year-old Wolfgang still believed fate was confined to his little village. But when the mark of the Empire's double-headed eagle pierced his peaceful days and nights, the boy realized he had long been standing at the edge of an abyss. Someone had mixed the poison of power into his ink. Someone had woven a noose into the trim of his collar.

The legend of the Iron Crown circulated through the Electors' banquets and the mutterings of beggars, while the boy was forced to dance beneath the gaze of the church's stained-glass windows. A shattered family crest in a secret chamber, a bloodstained ring knocking at the cellar door in the dead of night... Every step pushed him toward the most dangerous fault line in the Holy Roman Empire. When every pursuer claimed to hold proof of his guilt, Wolfgang finally understood: the sharpest sword in this empire was always hidden in the most innocent-looking mirror.

And now, the mirror had shattered beneath his feet into a thousand fragments.