Emperor Mage

Infobox Book
name = Emperor Mage
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 1995 Atheneum hardcover of the book.
author = Tamora Pierce
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = The Immortals
subject =
genre = Fantasy
publisher = Scholastic Press
release_date = November 17, 1994
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 256 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-590-55802-1
preceded_by = Wolf-Speaker
followed_by = The Realms of the Gods

"Emperor Mage" is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, the third in a series of four books, The Immortals. It details the peace delegation sent by Tortall to Carthak which Daine joins, to save the emperor's birds.

Plot introduction

Daine travels to Carthak to help cure the Emperor's birds of a mysterious sickness, in hopes that the relations with Carthak will strengthen.

Plot summary

Daine is sent with a delegation that includes both Sir Gareths of Naxen, Alanna the Lioness, and Numair Salmalin to the Emperor Mage of Carthak, in hopes that she can smooth relations by helping with his prized birds. All seems well in the elaborate court of the charming emperor, who continues to proclaim his innocence in stirring up troubles in Tortall and truly cares for his prized aviary. This soothes the nervous delegation, which is further complicated by the presence of Numair, who had to flee Carthak and Ozorne's ire several years before. Nevertheless, all is not well in the Carthak empire.

Daine makes several friends in Carthak, including Numair's former teacher and still close friend Lindhall Reed, Ozorne's heir, his nephew Kaddar, and a marmoset named Zekoi. She also is reunited with the Stormwing Rikash Moonsword, who seems to bear her no significant ill will and in fact warns her several times about the trouble brewing in the empire. Despite her best efforts, she gets caught up in not only the political situation, but a religious one of sorts as well. Emperor Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe has been neglecting the worship of the gods, primarily the chief Goddess of Carthak, the Graveyard Hag. To Daine's surprise and later, chagrin, she realizes that she has the ability to revive dead bodies, which leads to a series of mixed episodes which includes the revival of an only partly assembled Archaeopteryx skeleton and culminates in the revival of a whole nest of dinosaur eggs and nestlings. The reanimation of the nest results in Daine killing herself and having to get forcibly revived by the Badger god. During the time she is "dead," she gets a brief image of her mother with a mysterious horned stranger.

Daine fights her newly given "gift," which cannot be taken away except by the Graveyard Hag, who has supreme power in Carthak as the primary goddess. It is noted that the only one more powerful in Carthak is the Black God, god of death, but she is his daughter and he listens to her in matters involving Carthak. The Graveyard Hag urges Daine, as her vessel, to act by causing chaos with the revival of the human dead to get Emperor Ozorne to remember the gods once more. Daine is understandably rather disinclined to do so. When it seems Ozorne has murdered Numair, an enraged Daine revives a horde of dinosaurs, whose fossils had been assembled by the mage Lindhall, and destroys the entire palace. Ozorne's rule is broken (he gets turned into a Stormwing) and replaced with that of the more benevolent Kaddar. Her duty as a vessel completed, Daine finally has her "gift" taken away (to her extreme relief).