*Bronze Medal Winner, 2010 Independent Publishers Book Awards* When Verity falls through the floor of Ford's Theatre and finds a smart-aleck, shape-shifting, telepathic sword named Jasper, she figures that's as weird as her day will get. Wrong! Verity and Jasper (disguised as an old tin cup) are forced to flee Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1862, pursued by demons and assassins sent by the Honourable Merchantry, a corporation of sorcerers that secretly controls the world. It aims to possess the goofy blade and the magical stone that powers it, before the reluctant Verity can master her new powers and overthrow the Merchantry. Aided by a wacky collection of enchanted allies, including Roman Legionary rats and combat pelicans, Verity must find a way through the battling Union and Confederate armies while avoiding corrupt mages, hellish weaponry, and her own fears. She also has to cope with Jasper's twisted sense of humor and the need to recharge his magic with favors no 12 year-old girl should do, like smoking corncob pipes. Full of sly references to Huckleberry Finn and other literary classics, BRIMSTONE AND LILY is the first book in the Legacy Stone series of tongue-in-cheek alternate-reality Civil War adventures.