Part of Series
Elisha, a barber-surgeon from the poorest streets of benighted fourteenth-century London, has come a long way from home. He was always skilled at his work—but skill alone could not protect him, on the day that disaster left his family ruined and Elisha himself wrongly accused of murder. With no way out, Elisha accepted the offer of Lucius, a haughty physician, to avoid a trial by serving under Lucius as a battle surgeon of the king’s army at the front lines of an unjust war . Elisha worked night and day, both tending to the wounded soldiers and protecting them from the physician’s experiments. Even so, he soon found that he had a talent for a surprising and deadly sort of magic, and was drawn into the clandestine world of sorcery by the enchanting young witch Brigit—who had baffling ties to his past, and ambitious plans for his future. But even Brigit did not understand the terrible power Elisha could wield, until the day he was forced to embrace it and end the war...by killing the king. Now, Elisha has become a wanted man—not only of those who’d hate and fear him, but of those who’d seek to woo his support. Because beneath the politics of court and castle are those of power in its purest form: magic. And the players in that deeper game are stranger and more terrifying than Elisha could ever have imagined. There are the magi, those who have grasped the secrets of affinity and knowledge to manipulate mind and matter, always working behind the scenes. There are indivisi, thought mad by the rest of the magical world: those so devoted to their subject of study that they have become “indivisible” from it, and whose influence in their realm is wondrous beyond even the dreams of “normal” magi. And then there are—there may be—the necromancers, whose methods, motives, and very existence remain mysterious, except to know that where the rumors of their passing go, death follows. But death follows Elisha, too. First with his exceptional medical skill, and then with something more, Elisha has always fought against the darkness of his world. Yet as he begins a journey to help rebuild the country he shattered, will he be able to overcome the darkness inside himself?
Author
I passed a peripatetic childhood reading way too many books, and eventually writing my own little stories, either inspired by my life (such as it was) or by whatever I was reading at the time. I thought I would grow up to be an archaeologist which explains why I read The Last Days of Pompeii at the age of nine. I was fortunate to have a few teachers early on who encouraged my literary tendencies—including one who let me stay inside to read during recess. When I discovered the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval recreation group, I delved more deeply into medieval history, becoming enthralled with the dark castles, bloodsports and social expectations of the period. I nearly went to Fordham University for Medieval Studies, but chose Stanford instead—then withdrew as soon as humanly possible (before I ever started, as a matter of fact). By this time, my stories accumulated rejection slips faster than the DOW was rising, yet I continued to hope my writing would be the answer. I started work on a first novel during a summer writing workshop, and finally finished it some years later, while depending on the refuge of aspiring writers everywhere: working customer service and living with family. A second novel, begun with a notebook full of world-building concepts and great ambitions, lies dormant in a file my computer can no longer read. But when I met Elisha Barber, I knew I was on to something. I have to thank a local workshop with Dan Brown (slightly before he became THE Dan Brown) for my approach to the new project. Now I find that once I start reading history, science, sociology, I discover a dozen different stories hiding in the details. . . I live quietly in New England with my family, where I have just found the right dog to defend the new apple trees from the local whitetail deer population.
