Mulan meets Iron Widow in this thrilling silkpunk fantasy about a girl who must disguise
herself as a boy and enter the famed and dangerous Engineer’s Guild trials to unravel the
mystery of her father’s murder. Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class
engineer like her father but after his sudden murder her life falls apart. Left with only a
journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin a
heartbroken Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild—a place
that harbors her father’s hidden past—determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man
who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune. Disguised as her brother Ying
manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely
ally—Aogiya Ye-yang the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown
placing a target firmly on her back Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors
the jealous guild masters and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating
everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince who may have mysterious
plans of his own. The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they
build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake Ying doesn’t know who to
trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for or
will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?
