Antonia is the daughter of the head of institutionalized wizardry, and she wants nothing more-or so she thinks at fourteen-than to grow up to be a wizard too: the first woman wizard. But then she discovers that her mother has all sorts of unexpected female cousins who intend her to come be a witch with them, at the same time as she realizes that a lot of the male wizards are highly opposed to letting a mere girl learn their arcane secrets... As she tries to find her own way, she hears the legend of the Starlight Raven, a bird rejected by its own kind because it does not fit in anywhere, whose...

The tiny kingdom of Yurt is the perfect place-or so it seems-for someone who barely managed to graduate from the wizards' school, especially after all that embarrassment with the frogs. But Daimbert, newly hired Royal Wizard of Yurt, senses an evil spell at work. But who could be responsible? The beautiful young queen? Her flighty aunt? The dour chaplain? The old, retired Royal Wizard, who seems to know more than he's saying? Or someone from out of the castle's past? Daimbert quickly realizes that finding out and saving his kingdom may take all the magic he never learned properly in the first...

Passion and betrayal in mythic Cornwall.... Mark, young king of Cornwall, faces heavy demands from Eire for tribute, and then his beloved sister runs away with a hot-headed knight. When, years later, her son Tristan returns unexpectedly to Cornwall, Mark hopes finally to oppose the outrageous Irish demands for tribute. Perhaps a royal marriage with Isolde, crown princess of Eire? But passion leads not to heavenly joy but rather to betrayal and deception. If Mark is to find true love, it must be where he least expects it.

At the wizards' school where she is the only girl, Antonia is seeking to balance female with male magic. The long-delayed arrival of a second young woman should improve matters, she hopes, but when a terrifying haunting appears, some of the teachers suspect malevolent female influence. Sudden and unwanted attentions from too many of the male students add to Antonia's problems, and then she discovers hints of even darker concerns, including a plot to overthrow the school's very structure. Can the wizards' school's youngest student manage to save it when some ask if she should even be there?