Sagacious

Set in the tumultuous, magic-filled history of the Phoenix Feather quartet… How did scholarly, modest Lan Renti, lowest ranking of the troubled imperial clan, rise to become the Sage Empress, first woman ruler in the long history of the Empire of a Thousand Isles? Aware of how the official records embellish (or sidestep) the truth, she's determined to set the record straight. In this first of two volumes, she begins with her life in the imperial palace until the catastrophic injustice that flung her as a young teen into the dangerous world of the Warring Princes to seek her missing brother. Secret identities, a talking sword, and a friendship that might become something more, land her outside the law as a gallant wanderer. Only, what happens when "the law" becomes increasingly unjust? Ren grapples with that question as her first mission, supposedly simple, becomes fraught with wide-ranging consequences… Pre-History to the Phoenix Feather series

The final book in the Phoenix Feather and Sagacious series, Sagacious Blade brings the story full circle.It would be difficult to find two boys more unlike.Friendly, animal-loving Ki Mek, youngest of a sprawling family of gallant wanderers, was born with Essence talent-much to the dismay of the Kis, who only believe in the skills of their blades.Je Tai, the scholarly, reclusive only son of a subsidiary branch of the lofty Ji family, is on his way back to the school where he is studying divination.The two are swept overboard in a terrible storm, and end up made slaves by the western empire, age-old enemies of the Thousand Islands Empire.They escape into adventures martial and magical until they and those they love are swept up in a war spanning two empires.With the aid of Sagacious Blade, both will learn the costs of power… Pre-History to the Phoenix Feather series