The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce

Lady Sandrilene Fa Toren has taken over running the city of Emelan since her uncle Vedris, the Duke, had a heart attack, and she and her former close friends and companions have been scattered far and wide since they left the Temple of the Winding Circle to travel with their mentors and take on students of their own. Now, it is years later, and they are regathered in the city, only to find that along with growing up, they have also grown apart, and Sandry, for one, isn't happy with the change.

But when Sandry's cousin in the lands of Namorn sends her a request to visit the lands she holds there, and her cousin administers for her, her Uncle thinks she should definitely go... and that she should take her friends with her. Sandry isn't sure she wants to go, or to go with these strangers that once considered her a friend, but she decides to acquiesce and go. Hopefully, along the way, she and her friends will overcome the differences that have grown up between them and get back to the easy friendship they once shared.

At least, that is what she hopes, but the travel has them all rubbing each other the wrong way as they find themselves forgetting what they should have known about each other after four long years apart. Even when they sometimes get along, tensions from what they encounter have them all on edge, things that they have seen and cannot forget from their journeys that cause them to be less than kind to each other.

When they finally arrive in Sandry's lands in Namorn, they discover that the Empress has forced her to come by fining her Namornian cousin for her not being there. He is close to bankruptcy because she did not come when he asked her to before. This makes Sandry apprehensive about what the Empress means for her to do and be, but the Empress puts her at ease by welcoming her most warmly and taking Sandry and her friends into the court.

There, each finds something to draw them to Namorn: Daja finds love with another woman of the court, Sandry is being gently persued by two handsome male nobles, Trisana finds learning, and Briar more interesting plants than he could study in years. But when Sandry finds out that these are intended to make them stay forever in Namorn, and tie them all to the Empress, her plots against them force them to get to know each other all over again, and to become closer than ever.

The Empress may only want them to stay in Namorn, but the sneaky and underhanded way she goes about it rubs them all the wrong way and ends up making them flee for their lives. But when she tries to force them all to stay in Namorn, Empress Berenene is in for the fight of her life, For Sandry and her friends aren't the usual sorts of mages that Berenene is used to dealing with, and even if they are no longer as close as they used to be, none of them will knuckle under to a tyrant. With their friendship and their personalities reinforcing each other and keeping each other balanced, these four will not be stopped as they fight to take their lives back and leave Namorn- even if it means breaking the world's strongest mage walls to do so!

This book was well worth waiting for. I started reading the Magic Circle series years ago, and really enjoyed it. Then came the Circle Opens series, where the four main characters separated and encountered both peril and their first students. Now, it's four years later and all of them have both grown and been scarred by what they have seen in their time away. While they may be able to forgive each other what they did as friends often do, they find it much harder to forgive themselves their own actions.

In most part, they have returned to being the sorts of people they were before they met, retreating into a role to ensure that they don't have to remember their own scars. But that cuts them off from the others- because they can't truly share what they did and what happened to them while they were apart. It's only by going through the perils and hardships of the road and what happens to them in Namorn that they remember that they are friends, and to be careful of each other and to drop the roles they have assumed and once more just be who they are.

It isn't until the very end of the book when they find their true friendship and balance again, but when they do it made me smile, and made all their bickering and rubbing against each other on the way worth it. None of them can be bought, and her refusal to see that cost Berenene their presence, not to mention some severe damage to her rule and country, but then, people don't react well to trying to be bought or forced, and that is what the Empress attempted to do.

I recommend this series and this book for the story of four unusual mages who have strange powers and forge a strong, most unusual friendship. Each story about them holds your interest and this last one makes me long for more set in that world. I know there is another book, Melting Stones, starring Evumeimei Dingzai, student of Briar, but I'd really like to read more about the four protagonists after this. I only hope Tamora Pierce can think of more stories featuring these mages. Highly recommended.