Vox is a children's fantasy novel by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, first published in 2003. It is the sixth volume of The Edge Chronicles and the second of the Rook Saga trilogy; within the stories' own chronology it is the eighth novel, following the Quint Saga and Twig Saga trilogies. Plot summary The novel begins by showing the state of play in Undertown. The usurper Vox Verlix is now trapped in the Palace of Statues having lost control over all his grand projects. The Guardians of Night took over the Tower of Night when they drove him out, the Shrykes seized the Great Mire Road, and the goblins Vox hired to enslave Undertowners and build the Sanctaphrax Forest cut the Most High Academe out of the loop. Vox was left as nothing more than a puppet used by General Tytugg of Undertown to keep the Shrykes at bay. The situation also appears to be coming to a head. The Shrykes are massing for war. The goblins in Undertown seem much more aggressive, with numerous assassins sent to kill Vox, who is now too obese to leave his Palace of Statues. To cap all this, strange sightings are being reported by Librarian Knights on patrol; demonic creatures are seen emerging from a former Undertown district named Screetown, a rubble wasteland. This is revealed to be down to the work of the Most High Guardian of Night, Orbix Xaxis, who is having his executioner Mollus Leddix feed captured librarians to rock demons. Rook Barkwater is on patrol duty, noting the sweltering weather, when he is struck by a fireball and sent hurtling to earth. He awakens, battered and bruised, to find his skycraft the Stormhornet broken beyond repair. Rook hopelessly traverses Screetown, pursued by predators, one of which, a Rubble-ghoul, almost kills him, until he is rescued by his old friend Felix Lodd, Varis' brother, whom Rook and all the other librarians believed to be dead in Screetown, as rumour had it nobody could survive there. Felix takes Rook back to his hideout for the night, having formed a gang called "the Ghosts of Screetown", who trap and hunt whilst attempting to free as many as Sanctaphrax Forest slaves as they can. Rook journeys through Undertown after bidding farewell to Felix, seeking a way back to the sewers, only to be caught by goblins. Rook is put up for auction in