The Stone Mage and the Sea

"What happens to people who use the Change in ways the Sky Wardens don't like? People who aren't evil, just different. What happens to them?" "Well, that depends," said Sal's father, "on whether they're caught..." In a world where the huge, red-sanded deserts are ruled by Stone Mages and the vast coastlines by Sky Wardens, any child with magic ability is taken away to the Haunted City to be trained in the Change. Fundelry is a small town much like any other in the Strand. The people have little tolerance for anyone who stands out, and Sal and his father are strangers, running from someone... or something. Sal is rescued from the local bully by Shilly and her teacher Lodo, a mysterious tattooed man who seems to know more about Sal than Sal himself. And, strangely, Sal's father seems to want to say put for a while. But soon the Sky Wardens will come to Fundelry - before then Sal must uncover the connection between Lodo and the mother he never met, in order to escape a fate that seems to have been chosen for him before he was even born...