The Pearls That Were His Eyes - Ian Andrews - Bog

Cittàvecchio - the Old City.

An Age of Reason, so the Lords of the City say, from behind their elegant masks. Superstition has no place in modern Cittàvecchio; we have moved beyond our dark past.

But in the flooded streets and narrow, fogbound alleyways of the old Imperial capital, a past both feared and secretly yearned for may not have given up its grip entirely - as dissent against the Duke spreads through the populace and bloody murders stir up the poor and dispossessed, the city is reminded once more that where there is superstition, there is usually good reason why - and that even in an Age of Reason, there are things in the dark which wait only for an opportunity to crawl once more into the light.

As Cittàvecchio's festival week draws closer it becomes more and more obvious that those who plot in secret are themselves being manipulated and manoeuvered - and those doing the maniuplating might seek, not a new government, but a return to a much older one...