Morgan of Melksham has no tolerance for magic. As someone who grew up with a sword in hand, finger waggling mutterers simply have no place in her life. Morgan was taken in by a kind-hearted old man who ran an orphanage after a group of mercenaries found her abandoned in an evil forest. As she grew, her swordplay improved; this was helped considerably by a stint on the other side of the island, home to a tower where only the most desperate go to train and only the most determined make it out with the mark of one who has completed training. Morgan was one of these determined individuals, and after leaving the tower, she became a blade for hire, settling petty disputes between neighboring lords and taking on sieges. This all changed when she received a mysterious summons from the man who had raised her and given her a home. Abandoning her current siege, she returns to the orphanage to find its lord waiting for her with a dangerous quest: the king of Neroche has lost his magic, his borders are being invaded by foul creatures, and an enspelled dagger might be able to help him. Morgan is tasked with bearing the knife to Neroche.
Meanwhile in Neroche, King Adhemar is seeking a way to compensate for the unexplained loss of his powers; one minute he was fighting and his sword was responding to the magic in his blood, and the next thing you know, the magelight went out and he found himself powerless. His younger brother and the archmage of the realm, Miach, suggests finding a wielder for the magic sword that has hung in the castle for centuries. With the help of the wielder, they would be able to beat back the creatures that were overrunning the borders. Adhemar leaves Neroche and travels incognito in search of this wielder. Along the way, he runs into Morgan, who promptly knocks him out and steals his best pair of socks in payment for following her. The two are met by a few of Morgan's mercenary friends, and they end up traveling together. Back in Neroche, Miach hasn't received any messages from Adhemar, so he decides to check in himself and see what's happening. Searching for them proves harder than he expected, but he sees the magelight of the sword and is able to follow it. Upon arrival, he discovers that it was not Adhemar who called the magic, but Morgan, a seemingly insignificant wench from a backwater island. Morgan, who is very seasick from the trip across the ocean, refuses to acknowledge that she summoned the magic.
Miach decides to stay for a while, not only to assist in the search, but also so he can be close to Morgan, who he finds himself drawn to despite her rough nature. As the group draws closer to Neroche, so do Miach and Morgan. Disguising his true identity under the pretense of being a farmer, he helps Morgan as she struggles with the realization that she has magic in her blood. Along the way, he realizes that there is more to Morgan than there seems, and he eventually realizes that she is the one that Neroche needs to wield the sword. He hides this information from Adhemar and Morgan, afraid that the woman he has come to love will become nothing more than a pet to the crown. Miach has to decide which is more important: his duty or his heart. However, once they reach Neroche, everything will come out, one way or another. In the interest of not spoiling the ending, I'll leave it at that.
Pros:
- Star of the Morning has virtually every characteristic you could want in a book
- Never a dull moment
- Strong female lead
- The rather abrupt ending always leaves me feeling like I'm missing something
- Somewhere along the way, it seems like the focus goes away from the quest to Neroche and becomes a series of smaller plots
- This storyline degrades a little as the series goes on
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