Publisher's Synopsis
Penelope Parker is a ten year old girl with a problem; she has just been expelled from school! Now what on earth could a ten year old girl have done that was serious enough to get her expelled? Well, Penelope has special powers; the trouble is she can't control them. Her father is a wizard and her mother Mundane, with no powers at all, so the powers Penelope inherited from her father are not balanced by those of her mother. This has caused no end of catastrophes, one of which ends with Penelope being expelled. Her parents make the decision to send her to her Aunt Matilda for proper training, as her father is away fighting evil, and there she meets her Soul Bond Prudence, and her antagonist, Gillian, a spoiled brat. Penelope and Gillian are at loggerheads right from the start, and are aligned with opposite factors; Penelope with Light and Balance, and Gillian with Chaos and darkness. On her first day at the school, before classes have even started, Penelope meets trouble in the form of a statue of the Lady Justice that comes to life and makes Penelope answer three riddles. She answers them but the Lady attacks her. Things only escalate from there. Like all Witches, Penelope has a familiar, in the form of a talking cat, Hecate, given to her by her father. Hecate is advisor, friend, and sometimes pain in the butt to Penelope, but despite that, they love each other and each could not imagine life without the other. Gillian's father is a Sorcerer, and Penelope's an Arch Wizard, and they have been enemies all their lives, so the girls are expected to be the same. Marcus, Gillian's father is afraid of the powers Penelope doesn't know she has, and sets out to get rid of her and her family, but he doesn't reckon with Penelope's stubbornness and courage. He kidnaps Penelope's mother, Eleanor, hoping to precipitate a confrontation, but seriously underestimates the power of love. In the effort to rescue her mother, Penelope herself is kidnapped by Marcus, and left chained on the Black Isle, where, in two days time, at the Full Moon, the Chaos Winds will howl, and the voices of the damned will scream, and strip all sanity from Penelope. Can her friends rescue her in time?
