The Dragon's Apprentice (Dragon's Apprentice, 1, Band 1) - Softcover

Riley, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593813189 ISBN 13: 9780593813188

Verlag: Random House LLC US, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this hilarious fantasy adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Story Thieves series, a girl strikes a deal with the ancient, cranky dragon she accidentally summoned to teach her the forbidden magic she needs to save her mother.

The spellbinding first edition paperback of The Dragon's Apprentice features colored edges with a special dragon design!

STOP. Don’t read any further. There are magic spells in this book, and the Emperor has forbidden anyone from learning magic, because it’s way too dangerous! If you try one of the spells, any number of terrible things might happen (or so the Emperor says).

Don’t be like Ciara, a twelve-year-old girl living in the tiny village of Skael. When she used a spell from within this book, she ended up summoning a dragon. A DRAGON! Those things breathe fire! From their mouths! She’s obviously doomed.

And don’t listen if Ciara tells you that dragons won’t hurt humans, and that they even once taught us magic, a thousand years ago. Definitely don’t pay any attention to the fact that the dragon she summoned, Scorch, might be willing to help rescue Ciara’s mother and free her village from the Emperor and his Warden, because it’s all obviously a big lie. So put this book down, and forget about it. Magic is just way too dangerous. After all, you wouldn’t want to summon your own dragon, would you?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James Riley is the New York Times bestselling author of the STORY THIEVES, HALF UPON A TIME, ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME, REVENGE OF MAGIC, and DRAGON’S APPRENTICE series. He’s never apprenticed with a dragon . . . yet. He’s pretty sure there’s still time, though, especially if he could do it as an online video apprenticeship sort of thing. Does that exist? If not, it should: Learn Magic over Zoom (and Try Not to Burn Down Your House)!

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One

Magic makes the world go round.

So does spinning in place really fast.

--Bianca of Skael

More soon! Bianca had written, but that was the last entry in her thousand-year-old journal. Ciara flipped through the rest of the book, just like she’d done every time she’d read it, hoping she was missing something, but every other page was blank. What had happened to Bianca after that? What did the Dragon Mage have in mind for the dragons? And most importantly, why hadn’t everyone learned mag-ic like the Dragon Mage had promised?

She leaned back from the book, lost in thought, which the book didn’t seem to ap-preciate. It closed its brown leather cover and floated up to her eye level, looking for attention. She smiled in spite of herself and reached out to pet it, and the book began to purr like a cat.

Were all magic books this needy, or was it just Bianca’s journal? It’d been this way ever since Ciara had found it five years ago--though it was probably more accurate to say the book had found her. A boy in Skael had dared Ciara and her best friend, Meg, to spend a night in the tower near the mountain pass, which had terrified Ciara and excited Meg. If Ciara had known at the time that the tower had once be-longed to the Dragon Mage, then she probably would have been just as eager as her friend.

Unfortunately, Ciara and Meg had gotten separated as they’d wandered around an upper floor, and Ciara had ended up in a room she’d never seen in the daylight. There she discovered Bianca’s journal sitting on a broken shelf, somehow looking completely brand-new, especially compared with the ruins of the rest of the tower. She’d reached out nervously to take it, only for the book to float out to her, flap-ping its pages to say hello.

Needless to say, she’d screamed in terror and run for her life, but the book had just floated along behind her. Meg heard her screaming and eventually found Ciara on the ground a few yards from the tower, the book dancing happily in the air over her. So Meg did what any good friend would do: she punched the book.

Only, the book punched her back. It hadn’t ever liked Meg after that.

Even then, the book hadn’t given Ciara a choice, as it followed them all the way back to Skael. Fortunately, it was dark, so no one saw Ciara and Meg sneak with it into Ciara’s barn, where Ciara finally got brave enough to open it.

It wasn’t like she’d seen magic before, since it basically didn’t exist in Skael any-more, not since Bianca’s time. Only the Emperor and his son could use magic now, as it was strictly forbidden for anyone else. But according to Bianca, that wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. No, they were all supposed to know magic, not just the rulers of the Draconic Empire.

Bianca had been just a random kid from Skael when she was chosen by the Dragon Mage at twelve, the same age Ciara was now, and Ciara had pictured herself in Bianca’s place a million times since she’d found the book. After all, if she knew magic, there were so many things she could fix.

First, she’d cure everyone in the village of the Skael Cough, which had returned in spite of Bianca’s best efforts. No one would starve anymore, or have to pay the Warden the mandatory “donations” that took everything they had, especially not once Ciara magicked the Warden out of Skael forever.

And then, finally, Ciara might have made up for having caused all of those things in the first place. When the Warden arrived in Skael looking for Bianca’s journal a year after Ciara found it, she could have turned it over, and he would have re-turned to the capital immediately. But the Warden had said the book was evil, for-bidden by the Emperor, and at the time, it seemed a lot safer just to keep the book hidden.

And because of that, everything had gone wrong.

A hacking cough from outside the barn pulled Ciara’s attention back to reality. “Get back in the bag, okay?” she told the book, and it ruffled its pages in a way that always sounded like a sigh, but slowly floated into one of the empty brown sacks on the barn floor. Ciara shoved her second tunic, the one with all the holes in it, on top of the book to cover it, and that was it, everything she owned in one bag.

“Packed yet?” her mother said as she reached the barn door. Her pink skin was more flushed than usual, and her reddish-brown hair was plastered to her face. Even her brown tunic and pants looked damp with sweat. As Ciara watched, her mom half leaned, half fell against the barn’s doorframe, trying to look casual, not like she needed the support to stay upright.

Unfortunately, Ciara knew the truth, but she wasn’t going to force the issue, not now that she’d finally convinced her mother to sell everything they had to buy medicine, then leave Skael behind to try to find a village the Empire hadn’t yet reached, where they could start a new life. How they’d get there without any food, she didn’t know, but the medicine was the most important thing. Without it, her mother wouldn’t last another month.

Ciara brushed some dirt off her olive-green tunic and tan pants, then pushed some stray hairs the same color as her mom’s out of her face. “I was born packed!” she said with a shrug, picking up her bag. Even through the bag, the book gave her a warm, comforting feeling that definitely helped on days like today. “Took a few hours, but I managed to get my old tunic into a bag, so I’m ready. How did it go with Niall?”

Her mother winced. “He couldn’t pay as much as I’d hoped, but he did buy the farmhouse and barn, so that should give us all the coin we need for the medicine.” She shook her head. “I really hate that we’re left with nothing when I’ll probably get better without it, though.”

Ciara let that one go, holding back from replying that the Warden had claimed that same thing when her father and others had caught the Cough, which returned after the Warden reopened the Skael mines and forced the villagers to work in them. It was only when no one recovered and the illness proved fatal that the Warden had asked the Emperor for enough medicine to cure the entire village . . . if they could pay. Selling everything they owned was the only way to get enough to cover the cost.

“You’re right, what was I thinking?” Ciara said, rolling her eyes. “Hand over that money, I’m going to go buy a third shirt. The Emperor will probably invite me to court, I’ll look so fancy!”

Her mother smiled, but even that was weak. “I just wish the Warden had found that horrible book when he first arrived, and turned right around,” she said softly. “If he’d just gone back to the capital, everything would have been fine, and your father would still be here with us.”

A flush rose up Ciara’s face, and she tried to ignore the purring coming from the bag on her back. “We don’t even know if the book exists,” she said, trying not to wince as the book started pinching her through the sack with its covers, already getting antsy from having to hide. This was the problem with magical books; they just couldn’t stay quiet for even a minute, which made hiding them from the entire village so much tougher. “It’s not like the Warden even looked that hard.”

Her mother began coughing again before she could respond, and Ciara turned away, trying not to think about how her father had sounded much the same just before he’d died. We’ll get you medicine today, Mom, and then leave...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House LLC US
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593813189
• ISBN 13: 9780593813188
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland