SOLVED. Updated: Fantasy series w/old wizard and young prince traveling different kingdoms. [s]

[Jennifer]

I am pretty sure that I was reading them as they were being released, ranging from 1996 to 2007 or so, possibly 9 books?

A man loses his wife and child in a plague at the beginning of the first book. I think he is an old wizard who had been in retirement. He teams up with a young man who is a prince. Lots of sword fighting. They move all around a fictional land.

The spoiler part!!
At the end the end of the series the man and his various side kicks are looking for a witch who has been spreading a disease to kill people through her basket making.

I have been racking my brain and looking at lots of fantasy lists. Thanks for any help you can give.

[Ket]

I think I found it! The Sorcerers' Plague



From Amazon: "Now he takes the hero of that series to new adventures across the sea on a journey to the Southlands. Grinsa, who nearly single-handedly won the war of the Forelands, has been banished because he is a Weaver, a Qirsi who can wield many magics. He and his family seek only peace and a place to settle down. But even on the distant southern continent, they can't escape the tension between his magical folk and the non-magical Eandi. Instead of peace, they find a war-ravaged land awash in racial tension and clan conflicts. Worse yet, his own people try to harness his great power and destroy his family. Amid the high tension of clan rivalry comes a plague that preys on Qirsi power across the Southlands with deadly results. When the disease is linked to an itinerant woman peddling baskets, one old man takes it upon himself to find answers in the secrets of her veiled past."

[Jennifer]

Tana wrote: "I think I found it! The Sorcerers' Plague


Oh. My. Gosh!!!! Do you think I could send you lots of hugs?? hahahaha! You have no idea how many searches I have done. Thank you so much!!!!! I am nearly crying! lol