I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

Caveat: I don't think they're great books, but they are good at doing what they do--showing young people surviving early abusive situations and becoming heroes. Magic's Pawn is kind of the classic--stars Vanyel, who becomes a great magician and deals with homophobia. Arrows of the Queen is set some hundreds of years later, when magic is mostly gone, and stars a young girl who leaves her misogynistic home for a somewhat more egalitarian career as a Herald (serves the kingdom with the help of a magical horse--magic is mostly gone, but the magical horses hang around).