A Perilous Power

Book excerpt: Trevor Blake has always known he possessed magical gifts. For instance, he can conjure objects at a distance. But since he was young, he has suppressed his magic lest it draw hostility from the skeptical and ungifted and intolerant. In the small farming community where Trevor lives with his family, the practice of magic is forbidden-sometimes from fear...or jealousy. Most of the gifted, known as Adepts, practice their arts far away in the big cities. In fact, it is in the bustling coastal city of Port-of-Lords that Trevor has heard of a group of the gifted that have banded together in a secret underground community of adepts. Practicing their art among their own and under the cloak of secrecy, they are able to perfect and master their chosen gifts, perhaps reaching levels of art they could never have imagined. Buoyed with letters of introduction from influential relatives, Trevor boldly makes his way to Port-of-Lords, intent on joining the Community. Happily his best friend, Les Simonton, has agreed to join him on the journey. But no sooner have the boys arrived than the trouble begins. The kind of trouble that Trevor -even with his formidable magic-may be powerless to prevent.