King's Assassin — Stephen Deas

The third in a young adult series featuring an engaging thief-taker hero and taking place in the same world as the author's acclaimed Memory of Flames series

Berren has left his past as an apprentice thief-taker behind him, in a mist of blood and screams and death. Press-ganged as a sailor, his old life is now just a distant memory -- until the day he spots someone who might well be his old master, Syannis, the man who killed Berren's first love. Syannis was thought dead, but he is a hard man to kill. As Berren chases him down, he finds himself caught up in a web of political machination and danger unlike anything he has encountered. For Syannis is a deposed prince, and he is willing to go to any lengths -- including dealing with the black-hearted sorcerer Saffran Kuy -- to regain his throne. As Berren struggles to understand his feelings towards Syannis and his mad quest, he slowly comes to realize that the world is going to war -- and Berren is caught in the middle. Can he navigate a path through the dangers which surround him? Will he find a way to extricate himself from the sorcery and intrigue that follow him at every step? And who is destined to be the King's Assassin?