"Sarah Calhoun is the 15 year old daughter of the elector Andrew Calhoun, one of the electors who gets to decide who will ascend as the emperor of the New World. None of that matters to Sarah. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants is to be left alone. But then a Yankee wizard-priest tries to kidnap her. Sarah fights back with the aid of a monk named Thalanes, who is one of the not-quite-human Firstborns. It is he that reveals to Sarah her secret heritage. On a desperate quest to claim that heritage, she is hunted by the emperor's bodyguards as well as darker things. If she cannot claim her heritage, it may mean the end to her, her family and the world where she was just beginning to find her place"--