A Trial of Sorcerers
Book One
Elise Kova
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Silver Wing Press
Copyright © 2021 by Elise Kova
All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form without permission.
Cover Artwork by Marie Magny
Developmental Editing by Rebecca Faith Editorial
Line Editing and Proofreading by Melissa Frain
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-949694-19-2
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-949694-31-4
eISBN: 978-1-949694-30-7
Contents
Also by Elise Kova
Map of the Solaris Empire
Map of Meru
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Discover more from Elise Kova
Acknowledgments
About the Author: Elise Kova
Also by Elise Kova
* * *
See all of Elise’s books and find where to get them on her website at:
https://elisekova.com/books/
* * *A Trial of Sorcerers
A Trial of Sorcerers
A Hunt of Shadows
(More to Come)Married to Magic
A Deal with the Elf King
Married to Magic #2
(More to come)Air Awakens Universe
Air Awakens Series
Air Awakens
Fire Falling
Earth’s End
Water’s Wrath
Crystal Crowned
Vortex Chronicles
Vortex Visions
Chosen Champion
Failed Future
Sovereign Sacrifice
Crystal Caged
Golden Guard Trilogy
The Crown’s Dog
The Prince’s Rogue
The Farmer’s WarThe Loom Saga
The Alchemists of Loom
The Dragons of Nova
The Rebels of GoldNever miss a release.
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For the Tower Guard
The Solaris Empire
Map of Meru
1
The walls could talk, and they had secrets.
…where…going…
I don’t…
…keep this just between us…
Eira ignored the mutterings, keeping her head down and her nose in her book. The words were nothing more than magically trapped whispers of people who weren’t there—people who might not have been there for hours or even decades. They were her companions and her torturers. Eira fought to suppress and ignore the voices because when she’d tried to talk about them, no one believed her.
No one else could hear them.
She ascended the main walkway of the Tower of Sorcerers, a sloping path that wound like a corkscrew between lecture halls and libraries in the center and apprentice dormitory rooms on the outside. People brushed past her, quiet in contrast to the cacophony that threatened to deafen her if she let her magic run awry and unchecked.
Instead, Eira tried to fill her mind with the words of the book she was reading. They painted pictures of a land far away—the Crescent Continent, Meru. A land filled with magic vastly different than hers, and peoples that seemed as if they were straight out of a folktale. It was easy for her to place herself beyond her body, imagining standing on those distant shores, until a voice said—
…kill our sovereign…
She stopped in her tracks. Two apprentices emerged from a storeroom, whispering amongst themselves. The man wore Tower robes like her—no collar, loose sleeves to the elbows, hem falling at the small of his back. The woman’s robes had capped sleeves and a high collar. A Waterrunner and Firebearer, Adam and Noelle, also known as the Tower’s “power couple”—and the last people Eira ever wanted to see.
“What’re you staring at, freak?” Adam, the Waterrunner, said.
“I’m sorry, what?” Eira asked calmly, slipping her book into her satchel so they couldn’t turn her reading about Meru—her passion—into more ammunition to be used against her.
“Is she deaf now? Wasn’t she the one who ‘heard voices’ all the time?” Adam scoffed and looked to Noelle, who gave a snicker and tucked a length of dark tresses behind her ear.
“Perhaps she was talking to her imaginary friends and couldn’t hear us?” Noelle suggested.
“That it?” Adam took a step closer to Eira.
Eira looked at him from toe to head. She stared at the tip of his hooked nose to avoid his dark brown eyes. Just like Alyss had told her to do so she wouldn’t be intimidated. “I thought I heard one of you say something about the emperor.”
He laughed, a grating and terrible sound. A laugh Eira knew well…a laugh he reserved for at her. “Do I look like someone who would talk politics?”
“No.” Eira shook her head. “I suppose not. You’d have to have half a brain to have an opinion on politics.” She tore her eyes away and started back up the tower.
Adam grabbed her elbow, snarling, “What did you say?”
“Let me go,” Eira said quietly. Her magic swelled at the offending contact; if he held on to her much longer he’d be swept away by it, as helpless as a child in a rip current.
“You think you can just insult me and walk away?”
“Come on, Adam.” Noelle grabbed the arm not holding Eira in place.
“It’s not insulting you if it’s true,” Eira said softly.
“Say that again!” Tides of magic rolled off of him, uncontrolled, unstoppable. Eira felt like the moon, spinning around him with her words. Pulling him from one direction to the next was all too easy. Making him feel whatever she wanted him to feel—
Stop.
Eira closed her eyes and sighed softly, trying to ward off the dark depths she was sinking into. It was a place she could never risk going. “I’m sorry. Now let me go, Adam, please.”
“I’m not—”
“She’s not worth it.” Noelle regarded Eira warily from the corner of her eye. “You know what she did three years ago.”
Because of you. I didn’t mean to. If you hadn’t… The words still bubbled up in her, as horrible and dark as the memory of that day. But Eira was eighteen now. She no longer had to say everything that crossed her mind.
Silence was often the best path forward in a noisy world. Stasis and quiet and numb.
“What’s going on here?” a familiar voice interjected. All three of them turned to face the speaker. Adam’s hand quickly fell from Eira’s elbow.
“Nothing,
