Kimberly Garnick Giarratano

"Once upon a time there were four fairies in the city who hadn't been maimed. The second youngest, the only girl, was Beckan Moloy." Until recently, fairies had existed in relative peace with gnomes—gnomes occasionally devouring a fairy, fairies considering it fair exchange for gnomes' manual labor—in the ancient fairy city of Ferrum. The arrival of creatures called tightropers, come to "save" fairies from the gnomes, has thrown that delicate balance into chaos, resulting in out-and-out war. Beckan stays behind with Josha, Cricket, and Scrap (the other three young, still-whole fairies) after the rest of the fairies abandon Ferrum. The friends must prostitute themselves to gnomes in exchange for desperately needed food; this dangerous arrangement results in Beckan's uneasy alliance with gnome prince Tier and his fiancée Rig. She also befriends Piccolo, a tightroper boy who dreams of unity among races. Beckan's story is initially presented by a third-person, seemingly omniscient narrator