It’s Mella’s sixteenth year and finally her turn to discover what animal familiar will manifest from her chosen weapon to become her lifelong companion and comrade. Yet she fails to call her castling from her instrument of war, and instead brings her forth from a contraband instrument of music.

 

Armed with an extraordinary castling and a dangerous secret, Mella sneaks into the lowliest cohort of new castors to train for Wager Day. She’s determined to get her castling in shape in time to beat the other cohorts and prove her family wrong by earning the highest number of wagers on her cohort’s impending victory.

 

But when Mella gets caught and her illegal castling is sentenced to death by shattering, determination alone isn’t enough anymore. With the help of a long-forgotten prisoner, a mean girl, and some spiked punch, Mella takes a stab...at the wrong bad guy. 

 

For fans of ensemble casts, found family, and a whole lot of slow burn.