Skin Hunger

Sadima lives in a world where magic has been banned, leaving poor villagersprey to fakes and charlatans. A "magician" stole her family's few valuables andleft Sadima's mother to die on the day Sadima was born. But vestiges of magicare hidden in old rhymes and hearth tales and in people like Sadima, whoconceals her silent communication with animals for fear of rejection andridicule. When rumors of her gift reach Somiss, a young nobleman obsessed withrestoring magic, he sends Franklin, his lifelong servant, to find her. Sadima'sjoy at sharing her secret becomes love for the man she shares it with. ButFranklin's irrevocable bond to the brilliant and dangerous Somiss traps her,too, and she faces a heartbreaking decision. Centuries later magic has been restored, but it is available only to thewealthy and is strictly controlled by wizards within a sequestered academy ofmagic. Hahp, the expendable second son of a rich merchant, is forced into theacademy and finds himself paired with Gerrard, a peasant boy inexplicablyadmitted with nine sons of privilege and wealth. Only one of the ten studentswill graduate -- and the first academic requirement is survival. Sadima's and Hahp's worlds are separated by generations, but their lives areconnected in surprising and powerful ways in this brilliant first book ofKathleen Duey's dark, complex, and completely compelling trilogy.Duey, Kathleen is the author of 'Skin Hunger ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780689840937 and ISBN 0689840934.