Tribute - Sherwood Smith

The first in a series set in the world of the Phoenix Feather quartet, Tribute is inspired by the great Chinese epics such as Water Margin and Dream of Red Chamber as well as wuxia and xuanhuan series such as Nirvana in Fire and Joy of Life.

Bu is twelve and near-sighted, an unwanted daughter sent to a music audition. If she fails, she's on her own. Elderly Granny Zim, who knows that soon she must retire as head of the music academy, is fascinated by YinYin, a student who might not be human. YinYin and Bu become friends.

Life is settling down when warships show up on the horizon. It's the imperials, here to demand tribute. They take Bu, YinYin, and Granny Zim to a new, uncertain life in the troubled empire, where their only skill is their music.

But Granny Zim knows that music is a knife without a hilt. 

Tribute takes the reader on an adventure from the human world to the realm of the transcendent, via friendship, love, and questions about power, responsibility, and what it means to be human.