In All the Other Worlds

Another Planet, a different hope.

Nine children, all the youngest of their families, were sent to Earth to avoid civil unrest on their own planet. They were to be well-crafted machines by the time they returned home.
They were to rule.
They were to understand the art of war and politics and of royalty. The children were to understand how to be human and how to be entirely other.
They were graceful and cunning. They sheltered ice in their hearts and fire in their veins.