War Mages

"War is death"! Trained to fight in the arena, to replace bloody battles, the war mages have great power and fantastic abilities. Thrown unexpectedly into leadership, and sworn to protect the kingdom and princess, Niam must make some unusual alliances, including a bold, flame-throwing cowboy, a shape-shifting FaeBorn, and the daughter of the enemy. There is not such thing as civilized war. Men die, and people suffer.

In an attempt to create civilized war, the arena was set up. Instead of cities battling in the streets, buildings being burned, and civilians being killed, all the battles are between teams of war mages. Each city has a team made of war mages, who go into the Fae Forest, a land of mystery, magic, and fantasy creatures and people, to get their powers. The quest is dangerous, and not all survive it. If not for a curse upon the Fae, surely they all would die. Once they have powers, they must fight for their city in the arena, at times, to the death.

Although the civilized war sounds like a utopia, it is far from it, much more of a dystopia. The life of the war mages is hard and many die, if not by the enemy, by the hands of the government, who sentence mages to death if even suspected of a crime, and who beat them if they lose. If only the war mages could stop the war and have peace, but with enemies working to keep the war going, the war mages are destined to spend their lives fighting in a war that will never end.