Magic Steps

  The Circle of Magic Books

  Circle of Magic quartet:

  Book One: Sandry’s Book

  Book Two: Tris’s Book

  Book Three: Daja’s Book

  Book Four: Briar’s Book

  The Circle Opens quartet:

  Book One: Magic Steps

  Book Two: Street Magic

  Book Three: Cold Fire

  Book Four: Shatterglass

  The Will of the Empress

  Melting Stones

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tamora Pierce is a full-time writer whose fantasy books include The Circle of Magic, The Song of the Lioness, The Immortals quartets, and First Test. She says of her beginnings as an author that “after discovering fantasy and science fiction in the seventh grade, I was hooked on writing. I tried to write the same kind of stories I read, except with teenaged girl heroes — not too many of those around in the 1960s.”

  In her Circle of Magic quartet, Ms. Pierce introduced the four unforgettable mages-in-training who are now four years older in The Circle Opens – Sandry, Briar, Daja, and Tris. She began the new quartet at the urging of her many readers, who encouraged her through letters and e-mails to explore the mages’ lives further. She chose their next turning point to be when they each acquire their first students in magecraft.

  Ms. Pierce lives in New York City with her husband, their three cats (Scrap, Vinnie, and Ferret), two parakeets (Zorak and the Junior Birdman), and “a floating population of rescued wildlife, from mice to crows and chickens.” Her Web address is http://www.tamora-pierce.com.

  Copyright

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  Copyright © 2000 by Tamora Pierce

  Cover art by Jonathan Barkat

  Cover design by Steve Scott

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First Scholastic trade paperback printing, April 2001

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-41527-9