The Speaker Series

The man out of time. The foreman who takes him in. The widow who makes the harvest a home. The six drifters who repay her in magic. When the world was young, Joe was advisor to emperors, could challenge gods—he even succeeded in cheating death. Now Joe is the last speaker of magic. Or so he believes. Penniless, and hopping a train, he meets three hoboes who don't just show him the ropes of riding the rails. They show him magic hasn't faded out of the world the way he thought… Working as a farm laborer with them, and keeping his own abilities secret, it feels like he's found his people again, and for the first time in eons he's shocked to discover he has something to lose. Unfortunately, as Joe knows so well, very little lasts forever. Now, if he can't help hold his newfound friends together, he'll have to show them what he can do to make their remaining time unforgettable. A moving story about surprise renewal, about finding your people again after long loneliness, a story in which the magic moves hand to hand around the dinner table.

Jasper Barton, reporter for the Harperville Gazette, is pleasantly surprised when he gets called up on stage to aid the traveling prestidigitator, the Great Scotini, with a dangerous trick, pushing a sword through the man's forehead, and is astonished when he can't mark how the trick is done. It looks too real.   Going backstage to interview the magician for the paper, he soon realizes how right he was. The real sleight of hand, he soon learns, stems from the performers themselves, the magician and his unassuming assistant, the Lovely Janet. Not everything is as it seems. If only Jasper could find his notebook…