Mage Errant

Hugh of Emblin believes himself the worst student Skyhold Academy has ever seen — barely able to cast spells, and already on the wrong side of the most promising student in his year. When an unusual mage chooses him as apprentice during the Choosing, his life takes a sharp turn. Now all he has to worry about is the first-years' final test: being sent into the terrifying labyrinth beneath Skyhold.

After surviving Skyhold's deadly labyrinth, Hugh and his friends look forward to an uneventful summer. Their teacher Alustin has chartered a sandship for a training expedition to the wealthy desert city of Theras Tel. Of course, given Hugh's luck, it won't be quiet — pirates, monsters, warring cults, flesh-tearing sandstorms, and a conspiracy against Theras Tel's dragon queen all await them.

Hugh and his friends have become the center of attention at Skyhold — a consequence of surviving the labyrinth and helping stop a coup. As his second year begins, Hugh is also tasked with catching a traitor on the Skyhold Council who is working with the demon Bakori, lurking in the depths of the labyrinth and waiting for his chance at revenge.

Half a millennium ago, Kanderon Crux banished the city of Imperial Ithos from the world to defeat the Ithonian Empire. Now it's returning — bringing back the dread Exile Splinter with it. The great powers of the continent race to find the lost city, knowing that even the Splinter alone would justify war. Hugh and his friends are dragged along on the search, facing enemy warlocks, sea monsters, liches, and unnatural storms. Something about the lost city has even the greatest powers terrified.

Humiliated in the ruins of Ithos, the Havath Dominion has assembled an army dwarfed only by the monsters and mages leading it — Great Powers individually capable of leveling a city. As Havathi forces push closer to Skyhold, Hugh and his friends train relentlessly, hoping to make a difference in the oncoming siege. Once you're a pawn in the games of the Great Powers, there's no escape.

Kanderon Crux has fallen. The traitors who brought her down have fled with an ancient weapon stolen from Skyhold's Vault — not plagues as everyone believes, but the Tongue Eater, capable of devouring entire languages. Hugh Stormward and his friends are the only ones who know the truth, and there's no one they can trust with the knowledge. But Hugh doesn't care about saving the continent. He's convinced Kanderon is still alive, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to help her. (Includes the bonus novella Gram of Clan Castis.)

A new kind of war has come to Ithos. Airborne mage armies traverse enemy territory in secrecy; city-liches conspire from afar; nations unleash strange new magics in a rapidly accelerating arms race. At the center of the spiral lies the Havath Dominion's capital, where a vengeful madman has proclaimed the precise date and time he will destroy the city. Hugh and his friends are the only ones who can stop the ancient Tongue Eater, but the web of lies they've woven is fraying rapidly — and monsters and archmages capable of leveling cities will stop at nothing to claim it.