This particular tale about mages (or Elemental Masters) that have affinity for Earth, Air, Fire and Water concerns a young lady, Susanne Whitestone, the daughter of a very strong Earth mage, who has lived as a cast-off on her father’s estate in Yorkshire, England. Susanne grew up with affectionate servants who raised her after her mother died birthing her. In his intense grief, Susanne’s father rejected her utterly. So she does not see her father, though he continues to live in his rooms in Whitestone Manor, a brooding obsessive man.

The servants give her love and do their best to teach her reading from the Bible and the newspapers and the books in the library. The stableman teaches her basic math. She wears what clothes they can alter from dresses found in attic chests. Society at large is watched from the newspapers.

And magic? Why she learns that from Robin Goodfellow, the Puck. He is her close friend and has taught her all she knows about the land and keeping the estate blight free—save that which her father had blasted in his grief, immediately surrounding the manor house.

Though Susanne has no parental love, she herself is affectionate and helpful and very handy about the house: good with animals and cooking, cleaning, whatever needs doing.

Without warning when she is eighteen, her father decides he wants to see her. He tells her of his plans for her, schooling, etiquette, a whole new wardrobe, etc so she can handle herself in society.

Susanne and all the servants are floored by his sudden, intense interest.

Of course there’s a nasty, nasty reason he’s interested in his daughter.

And the plot just gets juicier.

The White Lodge, the consortium of good mages who do their all to keep England free from the Dark are tracking down a necromancer in Susanne’s neighborhood. And because of their hunting, Susanne means Lord Peter Almsley and Charles Kerridge (very good friends and mages) who are at the forefront of the search.

But the world beyond Yorkshire is dealing with a much, much bigger and more horrible issue: The Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie have been assassinated in Sarajevo and World War I—the Great War—is about to march its hobnailed boots all over Europe.

Susanne, under Puck’s tutelage, has become a very strong mage. And she is very disturbed by her father’s unexpected interest in her life. To discover his reasoning, she sneaks into a secret room hidden in the wall of her father’s suite and overhears a devastating conversation her father is having with himself, while looking at a painting of Susanne! It takes her a moment, but since she knows she has never sat for a portrait, she realizes it must be a picture of her mother.

She tells the other mages about his words and they decide she must be completely taken away from her father’s influence, and since he can track her easily by earth magic, she is sent across the Channel to the Ardennes in France.

And soon, is caught up in the horrors of war.

Here Lackey gives the reader a graphic glimpse of the horrendous nightmare of the First World War in the trenches of France. It’s outstanding.

Susanne eventually finds herself helping with the wounded (as an Earth mage, healing is one of her strengths). But officially she is not supposed to be in France and she eventually is sent back to London. ~~ Sue Martin