Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

Yelena is an orphan. Convicted of killing a man, she was sentenced to death, but pardoned for as long as she worked as a food taster for the Commander, Ruler of Ixia.

In the ranks of the men, she learned how to fight, and how to detect poisons under the command of Valek, the Commander's second-in-command and former assassin. Yelena was kept from fleeing by the threat of her own poisoning, which was kept at bay by the antidote, administered by Valek three times a day.

When she wasn't tasting the Commander's food or learning how to distinguish poisons, her time was her own, and she was able to move around pretty much where she wanted. But then she realized that she was falling in love with Valek, and he with her. Finally, she became aware of a plot against the Commander and saved his life with the aid of Irys, a mage. But Irys revealed that Yelena herself had magic, something that was a death offense in Ixia. Instead of killing her outright, and in thanks for saving his life, the Commander had her banished to the land that had been her childhood home, the Southern land of Sitia.

Yelena is one of a number of children kidnapped from Ixia and taken to the north. Her family have been searching for her for years, and now that she is found, they are ecstatic on her behalf. But Irys has another job, for she is a Master Mage of Sitia and is to take her to the Citadel to teach her to be able to control her magic.

Not everyone in her family is pleased to see her, however. Her brother, Leif, is angry at seeing her, even though her family tells her that he searched the hardest for her all these years. He tells everyone that she stinks of blood and dark magic, and turns away from her. Yelena is dumbfounded by his attitude, but she's not one for being conciliatory. But the next day, Leif says he'll be travelling to the citadel and if she wants to go, she has to go now. Yelena agrees, but Leif makes it clear to her that he doesn't trust her and doesn't think that she is really his sister. He thinks she's a spy for Ixia.

Realizing she has to keep the peace between them, she says nothing and follows him through the jungle. But after passing through a great market and buying some cloth, she and Leif are ambushed on the path by Cahil Ixia, the last surviving relative of the former King of Ixia, the man the Commander killed to take the throne. He and his men are also sure that Yelena is a spy, but she escapes and then comes back after knocking out the man who was tracking her to prove that she isn't a spy.

Cahil isn't sure whether or not to believe her, but decides to take her to the Citadel, where the First Mage will be able to read her mind and determine the truth. She's also made an enemy in Goel, the tracker, who intends to hunt her down and kill her as soon as he can, and tells her so. But when they get to the Citadel, Cahil has the first mage, Roze, probe her mind, the equivalent of mind-rape. Yelena, calling on the assistance of Valek, manages to keep her mind inviolate, which enrages Roze.

But with Irys vouching for her, Yelena is allowed to stay at the citadel and Irys becomes her mentor. Irys settles her in, and learns to ride a horse, from Cahil, who teaches at the Citadel during the school year, along with his men, and Sitian history from another Master Mage named Bain.

But when a young girl is kidnapped from her parents home, brutalized and nearly killed, Yelena teams up with her mentors to find the mage who killed her. But the girl is not the first victim of this mage, and though this is the first one he didn't manage to kill, her spirit is wandering far from her body. Since Yelena's strangth is magic like this, she attempts to call the girl's soul back to her body, as she did with the Commander's in Ixia. But this girl doesn't want to go back, so Yelena asks the mages to find a member of her family to help Yelena in her quest to bring her soul back into her body.

During this time, Yelena also shows a talent for magical healing as she helps the healers heal the girl's injuries. When the girl's sister arrives, Yelena and the sister help bring the girl's soul back into her body. Finally healed and revived, thanks to Yelena, the Mage Council try to send Yelena away so they can talk to her. But the girl, Tula, will only talk to Yelena. Together, they reconstruct the tattoos on the mage's body, and Irys realizes she must talk to the Sandseeds, a Sitian clan who are also heavily tattooed.

Yelena is at first too weak to go, but Valek lends her some of his strength and she joins the expedition anyway. Along the way, she and Leif encounter a Sandseed Storyteller, or magician, named Moon Man. Moon Man tells Leif that his soul is twisted up with hatred, and that it must be dealt with, but Leif is angry and afraid and won't stay. Yelena isn't afraid, and stays. Moon Man reveals she is related to him and offers to bring back her memory of her childhood, which has been hidden from her, if she will help him with Leif. She agrees, and when they arrive at the Sandseed village, the elders will only talk to Yelena.

She tells them about the attacks on the girls, and they tell her that some young Sandseeds have withdrawn from the Clans to an isolated mesa. But since the farming there is so poor, and the new clan so lazy, they steal from the other Sandseeds rather than trying to grow foods and make goods of their own. And they have revived a dark and dangerous magic that imprisons the souls... and the magic, of others, adding it to that of the magician. Yelena and the others help the Sandseeds attack the evil magicians, but the magicians are too powerful. Yelena, though attracts the attention of the sister of the magician she killed to protect the Commander, who vows vengeance on Yelena.

Returning to the Citadel, Yelena has to deal with the attentions of Cahil, who is attracted to her beauty, the hatred of Roze and Leif, and the news that Tula has been killed and her sister abducted in her stead. Plus, a delegation of Ixians will be arriving at the Citadel to treat with the Sitian Council. But the mage holding Tula's sister has a bargain in mind... trade Yelena for Tula's sister. But if he got Yelena's power, he would be unstoppable. Is there any way for Yelena to find and defeat Tula's killer with a legion of guards at her back? And will Valek be brazen enough to come south with the delegation to meet the council when Sitia has a price on his head? And is Yelena really a Soulfinder, with all that the word implies? And if she is, will she go crazy and kill people and raise their bodies without souls like the last Soulfinder did?

This was a middle book in a trilogy, and unfortunately, most middle books read like an afterthought, the boring middle in between the start of a story arc, and the climactic ending. This book didn't suffer any of those problems, and was a wonderful story in and of itself, and didn't feel saggy or draggy at all. Problems and new situations come at Yelena thick and fast, but she's good at dealing with problems in her own way.

At the beginning of the first book Yelena didn't know she had magical powers, or even where she was from or have access to her childhood memories. In this book, she gains all of that and more: knowledge that she may be a Soulfinder, something many people are afraid of, Roze included. But she makes friends just as easily, and her friends are prepared to help her in her quest for Ferde, the Soulstealer, and to find him and bring him to justice.

But with so much against her, how can she win? Well, to start with, she has a good mind as well as magic, and even if she sometimes jumps into a situation without thinking, her grasp on her magic and abilities with magic and fighting usually stand her in good stead. But is she prepared for the legend her abilities are making her? The next book is "Fire Study", which I have already read and enjoyed, so I recommend this book and entire series very highly. It's fantasy, it's romance, and more, all wrapped up in a wonderful and intriguing package.