Insatiably curious ten-year-old Erin loves watching her mother Soyon, a talented beast doctor who is clearly different from everyone else in their village, use special wooden flutes to care for the fearsome war drakes that their country’s soldiers ride into battle. But when all of these prized warrior beasts mysteriously die in the night, it’s Erin’s mother who is forced to pay the ultimate penalty—to be devoured by wild drakes. Suddenly, Erin is flung into the wide world all on her own with no more than the clothes on her back and the burning questions in her mind: How did her mother control even wild drakes with a mere whistle of her fingers, and why did she refuse to do so to save her own life?
