The Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson

In Winterson's sequel to Tanglewreck we are thrown back into Elizabethan London and Jack is on his way home eager to take charge of his new puppy when he is kidnapped and kept prisoner in the grey stone of the house of the Magus, an alchemist who has found a way to turn London to gold and force Elizabeth I to cede power to him.  As Silver is pulled through time from the present day and her previous battle to rescue the Timekeeper in Tanglewreck London starves and the children battle old and new enemies and encounter bizarre and magical creatures, an old dragon, a wraith like ancient king, a fearsome phoenix and a servant girl and man who are one person split in two.  Brilliantly written and bringing to life the the reality of life in Elizabethan times, dirty, smelly, often wretched, impoverished and supersititious, thronging with people and created from living wood and trees.