Plot synopsis for Armed & Magical

Today is my synopsis for Armed & Magical. As someone asked yesterday, is there a set length that I synopsis should be. MLTF was 7 pages, A&M was 6, and TTWD weighed in at a whopping 12 pages. I made mine long enough to say what I needed to say. However. . .if an agent or editor asks for a certain length -- give it to them. But if they just ask for a synopsis without giving a length, do the length that is right for your story. That being said, 12 pages is probably pushing it, but since it was my fourth book for Penguin, it was no problem. And if an editor's liking what she's reading, she won't mind a couple of extra pages.

And as you will see when you read it, quite a bit changed between writing the synopsis and finishing the book. A lot.

Here's the synopsis for Armed & Magical told from Raine's POV, present tense. Short and sweet at 6 pages. Tomorrow I'll post TTWD. I might be posting a little later tomorrow; I'm gonna try to get me some sleep. The past two weeks have kicked my butt, I'm running on fumes right now. ; )


What if you suddenly have a largely unknown, potentially unlimited power? What if that power just might eat your soul for breakfast, lunch and dinner? What if every magical mobster and sicko sorcerer in the seven kingdoms wants that power? And what if you can't get rid of it?

That's my problem. It started last week.

Yeah, panic was my first response, too. But you can't run far enough or fast enough, or find a hole deep enough when your new powers put you at the top of every power-hungry mage's most wanted list.

My name is Raine Benares. I'm a seeker -- a finder of things lost and people missing. Well, I was a Seeker. Last week when my sometime partner stole an amulet from a local necromancer, I ended up with the amulet and the trouble that was hot on its heels. What looked like a plain silver disk turned out to be a lodestone to an ancient soul-stealing stone -- and the next soul on the menu was mine. I wasn't in the mood to be lunch, but when I had tried to take the amulet off, the amulet tried to take me out.

All in all, it had been one of my more eventful weeks.

I managed to keep myself off a slab in the city morgue. Barely. The amulet and I parted ways. Sort of. I wish I could say the same for the soul-sucking rock it had been attached to. As of three days ago, the Thief of Souls (the Saghred, if you were a goblin) and I became psychic roommates -- along with all of the souls the stone had ingested over the centuries.

Then there's the legendary power that came along with it. I have yet to do anything on a truly world-altering scale, but I've been told by those who should know that I can pretty much do anything I put my mind to. That I don't want to put my mind to it doesn't seem to matter.

Getting my life back involves going from the frying pan into the fire. The Isle of Mid is home to the most prestigious college for sorcery, as well as the Conclave, the governing body for all magic users in the seven kingdoms. It's also an island full of power-grubbing, backstabbing mages, and I have a bond with a legendary stone of power no one has been able to wield and live -- until me, until now. I'm the most popular girl in town. But some think I have too much power. They can't control me. I'm a risk and have to be stopped. Some want a permanent solution, which becomes obvious as soon as the first assassin takes a shot at me. The squeamish ones want something less drastic. And it doesn't help my case any that I'm a member of one of the most notorious criminal families in the seven kingdoms. You can't pick your enemies, or your family.

The goblin secret society of the Brotherhood of the Khrynsani favor a more legally binding solution. Try being charged with grand larceny, attempted murder, kidnapping and false imprisonment. Which I guess are goblin terms for returning the Saghred to its rightful guardians, preventing the murder of innocents, and putting the sadistic (and unfortunately influential) Khrynsani grand shaman where he can't do any of the above crimes to anyone anymore. As if fighting power-hungry mages and assassins isn't enough, now I'm battling extradition. I can't be bonded to just any old stone of unlimited powers. Mine has lawyers.

But at least I'm not in this alone. The Conclave Guardians are my self-appointed protectors. Mychael Eiliesor, the Paladin of the Conclave Guardians, is one of the finest and most powerful spellsingers the Conclave of Sorcerers has ever produced. With the power of their voices alone, spellsingers can influence thought with a quietly hummed phrase, or control actions with simple speech or carefully crafted tune. The number of people doesn't matter. One spellsinger can turn the tide of battle. Gifted spellsingers are highly prized and sought after -- not to mention rare and dangerous. Mychael Eiliesor is all of the above. I'm glad he's on my side.

And his Guardians aren't slouches in the protect-and-defend department either. To keep the peace in a city of sorcerers takes an even more talented sorcerer -- and a warrior. The Guardians are both, and then some.

And I brought a couple of friends with me. My godfather Garadin Wyne and my elven landlady Tarsilia Rivalin are both retired Conclave mages. Piaras Rivalin is Tarsilia's teenage grandson and a spellsinging prodigy. He's just enrolled in the Conclave college, and is the little brother I've always wanted. Rache Nathrach is a goblin and the most notorious assassin in the kingdoms -- and seemingly the only assassin who isnt after the price on my head. Phaelan Benares is my cousin and the scion to the most notorious clan of pirates in the seven kingdoms. And then there's my father, Eamaliel Anguis, a 900-year-old elven Guardian and whose soul is a current resident inside the Saghred. My father is the reason why the Saghred chose me to attach itself to. My father also manipulated me into taking the Saghred in the first place. I can't really blame him; it looks like I'm his only chance at freedom. I don't like his methods, but I can't blame his motives, so I can't blame him. Besides, he's my father.

So if my enemies want to keep me close, I'll just keep my friends closer.

And my enemies want me close. There's Sarad Nukpana, high priest of the Khrynsani, chief councelor to the goblin king Sathrik Mal'Salin, and a first-rate psychopath. It doesn't matter that he's presently imprisoned inside the Saghred. A shaman as powerful as Sarad Nukpana isn't about to let a little thing like being a disembodied soul get in the way of vengeance. Chief among the Conclave mages engineering my demise is Carnades Silvanus. Hair the color of winter frost, eyes the blue of arctic ice, a pure-blooded high elf. And Carnades has those eyes firmly on Archmage's position and absolute control of the Conclave -- and the Saghred. Krispus Cradok is the self-proclaimed crime lord of the Isle of Mid. You can't be boss of anything in Mid without a certain level of magical talent, and Krispus has plenty of that, plus a king-sized grudge against the Guardians. Rahimat Mal'Salin is a young goblin spellsinger and member of the royal house. The kid's ambitious and is working his way up. Mal'Salins work their way up the family ladder by helping someone further up lose their place. Permanently. It's a lot of trouble to go to, but Rahimat doesn't strike me as the type to mind the extra effort.

And I'm not the only one on the island with problems. Student spellsingers on Mid have troubles of their own. Upcoming exams are the least of their worries. Mid's best spellsingers are vanishing, but not without a trace. Kidnappings often leave witnesses; and in this case, the witnesses don't want to be found, let alone talk.

I'm a Seeker. A good one, and my reputation has preceded me. So it doesn't take long for the same mages who are trying to kill me, kidnap me, or suck up to me to change their collective tune. They want me to find out who's behind the abductions and find the missing students. And they want it done yesterday, before some rich and powerful parents come down on their collective necks. Lives are at risk, and they're worried about losing tenure. With Piaras and his friends in danger, I hit the streets, with one big difference -- the Saghred goes silent. No whispered voices, no enhanced abilities. Just me and mine. The way I normally like it. But normal doesn't have me suspecting that the stone of power and its newfound disciples are behind a lot more than making my life miserable.

Sometimes I hate it when I'm right. Not only does Carnades Silvanus want the big office, he's behind the spellsinger abductions, and he isn't looking to start a choir. The Saghred is hungry, and I've been used. Isle of Mid and the Conclave's college is precisely where the Saghred wanted to go. The college offers up a nearly endless supply of what I discover is the Saghred's favorite food -- young, powerful (and vulnerable) magic. Hundreds of raucous students. Full of promise. Full of life. Full of magic. And the more souls the Saghred ingests, the stronger it becomes, strength that Carnades and his henchmen want at their command. I've just brought the Saghred back to the biggest buffet in the seven kingdoms, a buffet it hasn't visited in nearly a thousand years. If I'd bothered to listen, I probably could have heard the dinner bell ring the moment we docked. All I had been able to think about was getting the Saghred away from me. My father had the good sense to get the stone as far away from the students on Mid as possible. In one week, I've successfully screwed up hundreds of years of his work. Not the best way to make a good first impression on a father you've just met.

I have my work cut out for me. Prevent a coup of the Conclave, dodge an annoying number of assassins, keep the student spellsingers of Mid from being sacrificed to the Saghred, free myself from my link to the stone, and then find a way to destroy what ten generations of Guardians haven't been able to -- all before the goblin lawyers manage to push through enough paperwork to cart both me and the stone away.

The stone is getting hungrier. Spellsingers are getting scarcer. The mages are getting greedier.
The goblins are threatening to lay siege, declare war, or sue.

My father gave his soul to keep the Saghred from consuming life. The power that was once his is now at my fingertips. That's my birthright. It's also my responsibility. I won't give up either without a fight.

Time to get my hands dirty. Wish me luck.