Scrutator

The magical node has failed, leaving humanity's battle clankers, and the Aachim's deadly constructs, useless. The great battle has been lost. Now hordes of alien lyrinx are swarming out of their underground cities, intending to destroy the survivors. Tiaan is held prisoner by a vengeful Vithis, who is determined to seize control of her gift for geomancy. Nish, accused of betraying her to the Aachim, is condemned by his own father. Irisis, falsely convicted of high treason, has run for her life. The fate of humanity depends on one wily old man, Scrutator Xervish Flydd. But his enemy, the vicious Chief Scrutator Ghorr, blames him for humanity's disastrous defeat. Flydd is sent to die a brutish death as a slave, hauling ironclad clankers out of the battlefield mire until his heart bursts under the strain...