THE ALCHEMIST meets THE THREE MUSKETEERS- with card tricks. A brilliant origin story of adventure, wit and philosophy to enrapture devotees as well as newcomers to the SPELLSLINGER series. Ferius Parfax has a simple plan: kill every last inhabitant of the spell-gifted nation that destroyed her people, starting with the man who murdered her parents. Killing mages is a difficult and dangerous business, of course, but when she meets the inimitable and extraordinary Durrall Brown she discovers that physical strength is not the only way to defeat evil of all kinds. So Ferius undertakes to study the ways of the Argosi: the loosely-knit tribe of tricksters