The Keyrunners of Asterlock by Andrian Vale
Every lock is a question. Every key is someone’s answer.
Twelve-year-old rooftop courier Ren Calder has mapped every shortcut in Brightfall and reached every edge of the city. Then an impossible delivery and a sealed passage beneath the workshop district bring him together with Milo Quill, a brilliant young inventor whose curiosity can open almost anything.
Ren Calder is the fastest rooftop courier in Brightfall, a twelve-year-old route-reader who sees every safe landing, failing bracket, and hidden line through the city before anyone else has finished looking. Milo Quill is a twelve-year-old repair-shop inventor who can rebuild almost any mechanism and cannot leave a beautiful problem alone. An urgent delivery and a sealed shaft beneath Cricklane bring their talents together—and open a route into a buried world neither boy was meant to find.
Their discovery leads toward Asterlock Academy, where Keyrunners study ancient Locks that govern doors, machines, landscapes, and entire regions of Virelia. Each lock has a rule. Each key is an answer someone once paid to create. As Ren, Milo, and their allies move from academy trials to impossible expeditions, they uncover the forgotten purpose behind the training and a threat hidden inside the systems that have kept the world safely divided. The Keyrunners of Asterlock is a large-scale adventure about friendship, curiosity, responsibility, and building a path others can follow.
534 pages · PDF · $9.99
Read Chapter One free · Buy the complete ebook