In a fantastic city of canals, seventeen-year-old gondolier Altair Jones finds herself involved in aristocratic plots and mortal danger when she rescues a man thrown into the canal to drown

As winter's deadly cold threatens those who dwell on and around Merovingen's dank waterways and dark, twisting byways, the various forces seeking to wrest or retain control of the city are busily plotting new and desperate plans of treacherous betrayal. And seeking a weapon with which to blackmail Thomas Mondragon into doing his bidding, Chance Magruder - ambassador, spy, master assassin, and chief strategist for the fantastical Sword of God - has seized the opportunity to kidnap Altair Jones. But what Magruder doesn't know is that by imprisoning Jones he and his allies in crime, the slavers of Megary, may have unleashed a new force in the power games of Merovingen, a force which, its anger once roused, may prove completely unstoppable in its quest for revenge! Includes: "Troubled Waters" essay by C.J. Cherryh "A Tangled Web We Weave" novella by Mercedes Lackey "By a Woman's Hand" novelette by Nancy Asire "Strange Bedfellows" novelette by Lynn Abbey "Nessus' Shirt" novelette by Roberta Rogow "Treading the Maze" novelette by Leslie Fish Afterword: "Epilogue (Troubled Waters)" essay by C.J. Cherryh "Raj's Letters (Troubled Waters)" essay by uncredited "The Prisoner" novelette by Janet Morris "Saying Yes to Drugs" novelette by Chris Morris "Merovingian Pharmacology 103, or, Poison in Jest" essay by uncredited Merovingian Songs: "Partners" poem by Mercedes Lackey and C.J. Cherryh Merovingian Songs: "A Song for Marina" short fiction by Mercedes Lackey and C.J. Cherryh

Thomas Mondragon and the spunky canaler, Altair Jones, face their greatest challenge when Altair must rescue Mondragon from imprisonment, even while fires and riots sweep through the city