Fire in the Mist is a fantasy novel by

Holly Lisle Holly Lisle (born 1960) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance and romantic suspense novels. She is also known for her work in educating writers, including her e-book ''Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love An ...

. It was published on August 1, 1992 by

Baen Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher ...

. It was the winner of the

Compton Crook Award The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best English language first novel of the year in the field of science fiction, fantasy, or horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society at their annual science fiction convention, Baltic ...

Plot

Fire in the Mist is the story of Faia Rissedote, who as the story begins is a shepherd from a small village. Faia returns from tending her sheep to find everyone in her village dead from the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

. In her anguish, she loses control of her magic and destroys the entire village. This act is felt even in the far away town of Ariss, where staff of the university that exists there to train mages travel to the village to see what happened. They find Faia and bring her back to their university. Faia does not fit in there, as she is a much stronger mage but has little control; the other mage students either don't believe in her power or dislike her for being from a humble background. She does meet and sleep with a young mage, which is expressly forbidden as sex is supposed to be harmful to magical talent. A series of murders occur; primarily targeting young mages with potential. The women at the university believe it to be the work of the men, as the murders resemble a much earlier legend which implicated the men. Faia's body is taken over by the spirit of the murderer, who it turns out was actually a woman (and is the same person from the legend) and proceeds to start killing the mages of the university. Faia defeats the murderer by surprising her with the fact that she (the murderer, in Faia's body) is pregnant, and regains her body. She escapes the university, the staff of which still bear a grudge against her, in spite of explanations, and begins to travel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fire In The Mist 1992 American novels American fantasy novels