The Burning Song

Can a number determine your worth? That’s the question children in the colony ask until age ten, when a single test seals their future. Beth, a Number Four forced to work on a cleaning crew, hates her necklace of four beads, which identifies her as a lower worker … a nothing. She covets the foods and possessions of the Higher Ups in a society where everything is “fair” and perfectly ordered. Stories of the scorched land above—the duslans—convince Beth she will never leave the colony. When a strange pale man appears with hints she may not be a Number Four, Beth learns everything she knows is a lie. But without her Number, who is she?