D. M. Cornish

Growing up at Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, Rossamund Bookchild [a boy with an unfortunate name, has led a life sheltered from the dangers of the world. But all this changes when the man with the strange red-and-pale-blue eyes recruits him into the service of the Emperor.

Always too small and too meek, Rossamund Bookchild still has trouble 'fitting in'. When a haughty young girl, a member of a society of women monster hunters, is forced among the Lamplighters for training, he may no longer be the most despised soul around.