The nearer she got, the more people she met on the road. They walked quickly and silently with their heads down. Tia did the same. She passed through the towering town gates and onto crowded, winding streets lined with houses and shops, inns and workshops. The streets were built in a series of ri...
Stoplar lay in a sun-drenched bowl scooped out of the snow-covered black mountains towering around it. In the centre lay a vast stretch of rich brown earth tilled into low ridges. This was patrolled by children who waved and called to each other as they passed. Several also walked around a wall t...
Finn’s sharp dragon eyes were the first to spot a black dot high above the plain stretching away in front of them. ‘There he is!’ Tia shaded her eyes with her hand and made out a jackdaw flying swiftly in their direction. He landed with a bounce on the grass. ‘Well?’ Tia demanded. ‘Don’t be so im...
She kept them against the walls as she stumbled forward a few steps. ‘This is silly,’ she said, her voice sounding very loud in the still darkness. She concentrated hard and then very, very gently clicked her fingers. To her relief one cold, little flame sparked into life and danced on the tip of...
One was a big, burly man with deep creases of worry crinkling up his forehead so that his eyebrows almost met above his nose. The other person was Hyldi, the High Witch of Askarlend and Tia’s fifth aunt. Tia stared in amazement. The fearsome witch was tiny! Hyldi strutted towards Yufa’s box-stall...
‘Where did it come from? It just dropped from the sky.’ Tia thought she knew but she had more important things to deal with. ‘I’ll tell you later, Mama,’ she said hurriedly, fastening the chain round her neck. ‘First, please heal Finn. He’s my DragonBrother.’ Ondine gave Tia’s hand a gentle squee...