The Word Thieves — Carol Riggs

In her run-down district, Taylen Hafferill is known as the mech-whisperer. Along with her ability to hear the thoughts of mechanical creatures and converse with them, she leads a ragged band of rebels who protest the heavy taxes imposed by the Gold Monarch. In addition to the coin taxation, the Gold Monarch has decreed that words are to be taxed, plucked permanently from the commoner's minds by spider-like mech-collectors. These taxes keep the people weak and under royal control.At the palace, Lady Eliana of Noviston attempts to please her monarch father as well as protect the kingdom's four lesser districts. Time and speed in this balancing act is crucial, however, for a grave, evil danger is fast approaching from the east-an Entity that will annihilate her people unless it is stopped. She discovers a key to its possible defeat, but the path to victory is far from clear, and she doesn't have the power to do it alone.