Would it hurt you to just do as you're told?The O'Connell siblings live in the shadow of their parent's past, held back by obligation to keep the people of Stagmil safe when their father has to lead the non-hunters of their village to drive off a wyvern. Lily doesn't trust the stranger who calls herself Madeline when she staggers into the pastoral lands.

The puppeteer seems to take an interest in Lily's talent with the family mandoline, and she teaches Lily new music. Lily's had songs stuck in her head before, but nothing like this.

Twins Seth and Tiffany however can't wait for their father to return so they can get on with the shearing. Seth should at least be helping hunt the wyvern, and Tiffany wants to take her best friend Molly and head to the nearest city and see the world.

The twins and several other villagers are lured by song into the woods and transformed into marionettes: Seth breaking free before he can be strung, and Lily tainted in a way she doesn't understand. They have the skills to track the woman down, but to restore Seth to his body, and rescue Tiffany and the others?Tracking the woman takes them far from the familiar woodlands they know, across the sea to an enchanted castle, where in an effort to rescue their sister they'll learn something much more sinister than turning folk into puppets is going on.

They'll get help, of course, but not from who they expected. After all, last Seth checked, foxes are only supposed to have the one tail.

. .