Sylvia Kelso, The Moving Water

The Moving Water

Sylvia Kelso

Five Star, April 2007, $25.95, 325 pp.

ISBN 1594146063

The Lady Moriana rules the Assharral Empire with an invisible but iron fist. She is worshipped as a goddess, immortal, beautiful with powers that can put a whole empire under her spell so that its inhabitants have no will but what she lets them have. Alkir the captain of the Lady's guard is summoned to her presence and told to bring to her a crippled man with a scarred face. He finds the man Beryx who is an ader (a wizard), who willingly accepts their escort to the place and person he wants to go see.

On the trek to see Moriana he follows the Math (good magic) while the empress ruler follows Ammanth (Bad magic) amplified by the artifact the Well of Wisdom's light. When the two wizard's meet, they have a mental duel of sorts which ends with Beryx thrown into the dungeon where he promptly falls ill. Having won Alkir's loyalty and those of his guard, they help him and eventually he escapes, taking those who helped him with him. Moriana destroys people and lands in her attempt to bring them back but Beryx is holding out in the hope that she makes the one mistake that will save the empire.

THE MOVING WATER takes place in the same world as Everran's Bane and shows just how great the author's world-building skills are. This is a high fantasy at its finest with good and evil battling for control of the innocent. Although Alkir is the main protagonist and the story is told from his point of view, Beryx will capture the hearts of the audience with his grit and determination as he chooses the power of the light path even though it could kill him.

Harriet Klausner