The Chained Adept (1-4)

Book excerpt: Books 1-4 of The Chained Adept. 1: The Chained Adept. MEET A POWERFUL WIZARD WITH UNANSWERED QUESTION--AND AN UNBREAKABLE CHIN AROUND HER NECK. Have you ever wondered how you might rise to a dangerous situation and become the hero that was needed? The wizard Penrys has barely gained her footing in the country where she was found three years ago, chained around the neck and wiped of all knowledge. And now, an ill-planned experiment has sent her a quarter of the way around her world. One magic working has called to another and landed Penrys in the middle of an ugly war between neighboring countries, half a world away. No one has any reason to trust her amid rumors of wizards where they don’t belong. And she fears to let them know just what she can do--especially since she can't explain herself to them and she doesn't know everything about herself either. Penrys has her own problems, and she doesn't have any place in this conflict. But they need her, whether they realize it or not. And so she's determined to try and lend a hand, if she can. Whatever it takes. And once she discovers there's another chained adept, even stronger than she is, she's hooked. Friend or foe, she has questions for him -- oh, yes, she does. All she wants is a firm foundation for the rest of her life, with a side helping of retribution, and if she has to fix things along the way, well, so be it. 2: Mistress of Animals. AN ERRANT CHILD WITH DISASTROUS POWERS AND NO ONE TO STAND IN HER WAY. Penrys, the wizard with a chain and an unknown past, is drafted to find out what has happened to an entire clan of the nomadic Zannib. Nothing but their empty tents remain, abandoned on the autumn steppe with their herds. This wasn’t a detour she’d planned on making, but there’s little choice. Winter is coming, and hundreds are missing. The locals don’t trust her, but that’s nothing new. The question is, can she trust herself, when she discovers what her life might have been? Assuming, of course, that the price of so many dead was worth paying for it. 3: Broken Devices. CHAINS WITHOUT WIZARDS AND A RISING COUNT OF THE DEAD. The largest city in the world has just discovered its missing wizards. It seems the Kigali empire has ignited a panic that threatens internal ruin and the only chained wizard it knows that’s still alive is Penrys. The living wizards and the dead are not her people, not unless she makes them so. All they have in common is a heavy chain and a dead past -- the lives that were stolen from them are beyond recall. What remains are unanswered questions about who made them this way. And why. And what Penrys plans to do to find out. 4: On a Crooked Track. SETTING A TRAP TO CATCH THE MAKERS OF CHAINED WIZARDS. A clue has sent Penrys back to Ellech, the country where she first appeared four short years ago with her mind wiped, her body stripped, and her neck chained. It's time to enlist the help of the Collegium of Wizards which sheltered her then. Things don't work out that way, and she finds herself retracing a dead scholar's crooked track and setting herself up as a target to confirm her growing suspicions. But what happens to bait when the prey shows its teeth? In this conclusion to the series, tracking old crimes brings new dangers, and a chance for redemption.