Continuing my rereading theme, here’s the prequel to The Blue Sword. Aerin in the only child of the king, by his second wife, who some considered to be a witch, so there are whispers about her. She won’t inherit the throne – that goes to her cousin Tor. Consequently, she’s not really sure what to do with her life.
A chance encounter with an old book in the library gives her a formula for an old dragon fighter’s heat resistant potion, which she’s able to replicate, and when a representative of a village being menaced by a dragon comes to the palace while her father and Tor are away, she jumps at the chance to prove herself.
She’s wildly successful, but the dragons she’s fighting are barely more intelligent than regular animals, not the legendary creatures of old. Until the day that word comes that Maur, one of the great old dragons, has awakened. The King and Tor are dealing with an upstart baron on the border, and Aerin is therefore the only person capable of fighting this dragon. She wins, but is gravely wounded.
While trying to heal, she has a vision of a man, who may have known her mother, and she knows will heal her. She eventually finds her way to him, which will gain her the Blue Sword, and a heritage she didn’t know she had.
This description is absolutely not giving this story justice – it’s so much more than the above. Again, it’s a perfect example of why I love McKinley’s Damar stories – she’s imagined such a fantastic world.
Pingback: 2017 Books Read – The North Wind and the Sea