Does anyone have this story or a link to a pdf or epub version. It's written by KA Hammond. I have tried contacting the author, but have had no luck. The story was on Amazon years ago as I bought it there, but now says out of print, and isn't for sale digitally.
Merlin's Mage Academy was only printed in paperback from what I can find. If you hear from him let me know. From old reviews it sounds good.
I did not find that specific story but he has a catalog of similar stories published on another site under the name, Kenneth Hammond. (Can't post link because it's a competing site. Dems tha rules.)
Ka does have a story titled "Mage Academy", and one of the characters is named "Amberlyn", but I don't think that is the one you are looking for.
I only mention it because "Amberlyn" is similar to "Emrys", which is one of the names Merlin used.
He has published 2 books on Big River under the name Kenneth D. Hammond. I didn't find out about the MMA title until it was already "No Longer Available". I did buy his shorter second book, Knight's World, though. It is still available in paperback and Kindle formats. Instead of a novel it is more of an anthology of sequential short stories about a set of characters with a very minimal overarching story line. Enjoyable as such.