Writing from her high prison cell in the Tower of Mantan, Blanca of Rain Mountain confesses her so-called 'crimes' against the powerful Regency. As instructed by her anonymous captors, Blanca begins her first-person story with the simultaneous birth of herself and her two best friends in the village that sits at the base of the mysterious Rain Mountain. The Hand is the first in a series of young adult novels about the world of Word.**UNCORRECTED PROOF**