Peter and the Sword of Mercy
Dave Barry
 The story is set in 1902, 23 years after the events of Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. Molly Aster, now Molly Darling, is married to George and a mother of three: Wendy, John, and Michael. Her mother Louise has been deceased for a while and her father Leonard is very ill. One evening, she is visited by one of the original Lost Boys: James, who now works for Scotland Yard. He informs Molly about his suspicions with Baron von Schatten, an advisor to Prince Albert Edward. James thinks von Schatten is being controlled by Lord Ombra, but Molly brushes it off as foolishness, saying that Ombra was destroyed at Rundoon. Along with this, the Starcatchers have been few since the incident. James tells her he will come back the next night, giving her some time to think the whole thing over, as he has nowhere else to turn. Meanwhile, on Mollusk Island, four men known as McPherson, O'Neal, Kelly and DeWulf wash up on shore in a boat. They claim to have been lost at sea for a few weeks, but Chief Fighting Prawn becomes suspicious when he says that they look like they were out at sea for a few days. He and Peter keep a close eye on the four men, especially O'Neal. Back in London, Molly has waited three days, and James has still not returned. She starts to fear that he might be in real danger. Anxious to find out what is going on, Molly goes to the Scotland Yard, only to be told by his employer, Blake, that he is on vacation. Puzzled, Molly returns home and is almost grabbed by a bobby on the Underground. George is not too pleased when she tells him her story. He fears that he could lose his job due to a minor incident like this. Molly decides to talk to Wendy about the Starcatchers, knowing that her daughter is the only one who could understand. So, after Molly tells her daughter that she is actually in the Starcatchers, Molly sets off to her father's house, hoping to find some answers. But she, too, mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile, a hideous man-like monster named The Skeleton, one of the "Others" that can cause pain with but a mere touch, looks for the missing tip of the sword Curtana- a.k.a. the Sword of Mercy. He finds it in a church window, disguised as a bishop's miter. To keep his children safe, George sends them to stay in Cambridgeshire with Neville Plonk-Fenster, an inventor and their uncle. At Uncle Neville's place, Wendy is able to get an ornithopter, one of her uncle's inventions and uses it to find Peter. Before this, she visits her grandfather, Leonard Aster, who gives her a locket of starstuff and tells her to seek out Peter. Before he loses consciousness, he tells her to "confess". Wendy is confused, though, as she has no clue as to what he meant. In Molly's prison, she notices that men pass her prison every day. She believes they have been digging because of their dirty appearance. Wendy finally finds Peter on Mollusk Island with the help of some porpoises. She convinces him to come back to England with her to stop the "Others."