Bastion

Bastion by Mercedes Lackey, 342 pages

The fifth book in the Collegium Chronicles, these books mostly can stand alone, but are so good, you will want to read them all anyway. Plus, this is one is a little more dependent on what happened in the previous book than some others. Mags, having just returned from the terrible ordeal of being kidnapped, has planned a journey, the purpose of which is to convince his kidnappers that he is actually dead. While learning a lot about being a herald, he also learns more about his own heritage, not always in the easiest ways.