Death Sworn by Leah Cypess (review)

Her dwindling powers mean that Ileni is essentially useless as a servant to the magical Renegai, so the elders of the powerful group of mages decide to send her to teach magic to a bunch of assassins on the other side of the Empire—assassins who very likely murdered their two previous instructors. Ileni is determined to figure out exactly who is behind the deaths and why, despite the multitude of threats she encounters once arriving at the assassins’ den. No one here is quite what they seem—neither the cold-hearted master who’s willing to literally toss a student over a cliff to make a point but makes impassioned speeches about the betterment of the kingdom, nor Sorin, a steely-eyed boy who has meted out his fair share of death but remains a sensitive soul under all that calculated malice. The forbidden romance that inevitably strikes up between Ileni and Sorin is convincingly sultry, and it brings to the forefront the ethical dilemma Ileni is trying to avoid: if she could get her powers back through some very dark means, would she if it meant that she could help Sorin and his crew overthrow the corrupt Empire? An intriguing quandary, to be fair, but it would be more effective if the stakes were clearer: the building of the world outside of the caves and the history of the Empire is sketchy at best, making the war that everyone wants Ileni to lead seem a bit like an overreaction—especially when the Renegai and the assassins are guilty of the same crimes. As a start to a trilogy, however, this offers a lot of possibilities, and Ileni’s trip to the capital in the book’s final pages could mean further fleshing out of the kingdom and its woes in future installments.