The Powder Mage Trilogy

Enter a new world or return to see old friends in four Powder Mage Universe novellas featuring Erika, Tamas, Adamat, Taniel, Ka-poel, and Ben Styke.

Erika ja Leora is a powder mage in northern Kez, a place where that particular sorcery is punishable by death. She is only protected by her family name and her position as heir to a duchy. When she decides to help a young commoner-a powder mage marked for death, fugitive from the law-she puts her life and family reputation at risk and sets off to deliver her new ward to the safety of Adro while playing cat and mouse with the king's own mage hunters and their captain, Duke Nikslaus.

Captain Tamas is an ambitious young officer in the Adran army. As a commoner, he is one of very few without noble blood to hold a rank. When he challenges the son of a duke over an insult, the subsequent duel lands him in hot water with the nobility and the royal cabal of Privileged sorcerers. Tamas is soon drawn into a conflict that goes to the very highest office in the land, and his only ally is the most unlikely of people; a young noblewoman named Erika, who needs Tamas to teach her how to wield her powers as a powder mage.

Special Detective Constable Adamat may be the most capable young investigator in all of Adopest. He's sharp, thoughtful, and his particular sorcery gives him a flawless memory. A transfer to the First Precinct seems like the perfect opportunity to showcase his abilities and advance his career. But things work differently in the First Precinct. The murder of a businessman's mistress quickly pulls Adamat into an unexpected world of conspiracy and politics where he's forced to use all his wits to stay one step ahead of unseen enemies....

Five stories from the Powder Mage Universe, including the never-before-published "Green-Eyed Vipers".

Taniel Two-Shot is a powder mage with the Tristan Ghost Irregulars, a band of volunteers who have made a name for themselves fighting in the Fatrastan Revolution. They range through the swamps of the frontier, cutting off enemy supplies and raiding towns while Taniel hunts the Privileged sorcerers that make the Kez armies so powerful. When a desperate call for help comes from the nearby city of Planth, the Irregulars aren't the only ones to answer and Taniel must deal with another hero of the revolution: Mad Colonel Styke.

Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sends corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brings bread to the starving. But it also provokes war in the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas' supposed allies: the Church, workers' unions, and mercenary forces. Stretched to his limit, Tamas relies heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be Tamas' estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty will be tested to its limit.

In this thrilling first book of the Powder Mage Trilogy, civil unrest has crippled the citizens of Adro in the aftermath of the revolution that obliterated the monarchy—now, Field Marshal Tamas and his lieutenants must confront the true cost of freedom. It's a bloody business overthrowing a...

Captain Vlora is a powder mage in the Adran army. Once the favored, adopted daughter of the field marshal, she is now a pariah amongst those she called her family. Her superior officers would like nothing more than to send her to a far off posting and forget about her, but no one is exempt when...

As a staggering defeat on the border of Adro and Kez leaves Tamas and his powder mages in grave danger and cut off from all aid—a deadly political game threaten his allies at home. When invasion looms ... Tamas's invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counter-offensive leaves him cut off...

In the explosive conclusion to the Powder Mage trilogy, Tamas, Taniel, and Adamat have been betrayed and Adro now lies in the hands of a foreign invader—but it remains the duty of the powder mages to defend their homeland unto death. The capital has fallen ... Field Marshal Tamas returns to...

One of the cruelest jokes the world played on itself was turning a monster into a civilized man. That’s how Ben Styke sees it, anyway. Fifteen years have passed since the Dynize War and people no longer remember Styke as a convict or a soldier or a killer. He’s just another businessman. Hurting. Tired. Old. Playing a role that does not suit him. Styke’s world is upended on the day he refuses to sell horses to the wrong man. He is soon targeted by dangerous people with deep pockets, to whom one soft old rancher means nothing.