This book has a different cover, purple with a bay scene. (and a few bite marks lovingly placed by my bird)

From the back cover:

Lady Sandrilene fa Toren knows all about unusual magic—she herself spins and weaves it like thread. But when she witnesses a boy dancing a spell even she is confounded. To her dismay, Sandry learns that as the mage who discovered the power of the young dancer, she must be his teacher.
Before lessons can begin, however, Sandry and her uncle, Duke Vedris, get news of a mysterious murderer stalking a clan of local merchants. The killer employs the strangest magic of all: the ability to reduce essence to nothingness.
As the murders mount and the killer grows bolder, Sandry''s teaching takes on a grave purpose. For it becomes clear to everyone that the killings can only be stopped by the combined magical workings of two people the young teacher and her even younger student.

I found this book at the local library's books sale and since it's by one of my favorite authors, I snatched it up for bookcrossing. It isn't the best intro to Tamora Pierce's writing, but it is the beginning of one of her quartets.

Magic Steps is not my favorite book, in fact I like the other Circle Opens books much better, but that shouldn't make you think it's not worth reading! I absolutely love the Winding Circle world in which magic can be found in two ways. The first is your standard magical gift, which basically lets the bearer do much of what they want. The second is called ambient magic, in which magic works through a type of craft that the bearer is inclined to. Sandry, the main character of this book, is a thread mage. Her magic works through thread. This means that she can unravel fabric in a snap or can weave clothes which won't get wet or won't make any rustling noises at all. However, an ambient mage does not always have to work through their material, although they usually do, which makes them as powerful as your standard mage and often underestimated.

The Circle Opens is the second quartet of the Winding Circle universe. Sandry, Briar, Tris, and Daja were brought together as foster siblings in the first quartet, before they knew they had magic at all. Now they have split up to travel, and each discovers what it's like to be a teacher themselves. Magic Steps is Sandry's story.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left in one of the stairways of the northern wing.