A talent for enchantment
(Book)

"When Sophia discovers a book of spells in her convent's forbidden shelves, she rejects the vows she will soon be compelled to take, vowing instead to freelance as a magician. She takes the name of power Karamines, but the spells are not quite as advertised. Her first commission earns the enmity of the powerful Magician's Guild. Confrontations follow with a witch-burning priest; his African slave, a magician named Mutafassi with an agenda of his own, and other antagonists. Among these are an Assassins' Guildsman; Tyl the seductive woods-child who steals her away for a season to live among the charming but soulless dwellers in the forest; the Church; and Innokenty the slave trader and his captive Dazniptrya, a sullen young girl from faraway pagan lands who is strangely ungrateful when rescued."--Amazon.com.