Chaos Woods

When the auction for a magical artifact goes awry, killing the thief who tried to steal it, young barmaid Telyn Brower winds up with a fragment of a forbidden mask. Highly illegal. Highly dangerous. And highly addictive. As Telyn and her friends begin to use its power to reshape their town of Harlech, they unleash unforeseen consequences. But Harlech is no ordinary town. Isolated on the high plateau of the Chaos Woods-an enchanted forest where magic proves unpredictable-it survives in precarious balance between the magic-wielding armies of the coast and the wild denizens of the deep woods. Soon, that balance shatters, and everything begins to change. A daemon smashes the prefecture. Slavery returns. Secrets surface and puzzles multiply. As winter storms gather and evil forces close in, Telyn and her friends must embark on a high-stakes adventure to break free from the mask's grip, survive ferocious beasts, and confront the dreaded mind wizard...or lose everything they hold dear. A sweeping coming-of-age story about the allure of magic and the cost of wielding it, Chaos Woods begins one of the most original fantasy series since Roger Zelaznie's Chronicles of Amber and Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer.