The White Crow, one time Soldier Scholar of the Invisible College and a practioner of Hermetic science and magic, and Baltazar Casaubon, architect and lover, a man not too particular about his personal hygiene, are two of Mary Gentle's finest creations. The worlds they stride across range from the Renaissance city where aristocratic rats rule the human servant class, to a near future London where chaos is come again. They are two of the most powerful players in the games of magic and politics, and the most colourful. This volume brings together three brilliantly imaginative, powerful and disturbing tales Rats and Gargoyles, The Architecture of Desire and Left to His Own Devices and the linked short fiction and confirms Mary Gentle as one of the foremost writers of dark and visionary fantasy.