The time is a a far distant future, nearly two millennia after the collapse of our own civilisation. The Baron of Raspero has been driven into exile, from where he plots his return to his ancestral homeland. Eleanor Leland, a student of metaphysics and one of the renowned beauties of the age, keeps a wary eye on the factions which threaten her family. A beautiful witch, the feared head of the secret police, a forger who is in love with a lady-in-waiting who keeps a tell-all diary, a poet-criminal and a double agent all manoeuvre through the treacherous waters of the fatal politics of the ancient mystical kingdom of Westrigonia, where what is at stake is the throne itself. Everything happened faster than all-at-once. Suddenly Matthias was not sitting in his chair as four discs slammed into its oaken backing with a multiple impact that echoed around the Waiting Room of the Portal, burying themselves a third of their length into the wood, such was the ferocity of their velocity. Simultaneously with the flight of the discs came the four assassins flying through the air, wand-hands moving forward and then down to their feet to govern their motion. They were in a Y-shaped formation, straight out of the textbook. Unluckily for them, Matthias had read that textbook. For lovers of steampunk and fantasy, The Unexpected King will have you cheering for Matthias Raspero, the wand-fighting hero and wishing that you too, could transport to the world of Westrigonia, where everyone who has a wand is not afraid to use it in a duel to maintain one's honour.