*SIGNED BOOKPLATE*

With wit and gorgeous art,New York Timesbest-selling author Eoin Colfer and multi-award-winning illustrator P.J. Lynch team up again for a quest story of knights, dark magic, and a maiden with powers of her own.

Studious Prince Lir is next in line to become the Wolfhound King, but he cant ride a horse, lift a sword, or summon the fabled wolfhounds. So his stepmother decrees that her own son will inherit the crown instead, sending Lir away on a seemingly impossibleand assuredly fatalquest: to rescue the maiden Cethlenn from the once-fearsome dragon Lasvarg. Rather than wage battle, Lir insists that Lasvarg, now decidedly past his prime, honor tradition by setting him three tasks to performstarting with tackling the mold encrusting the dragons cave (and his feet!). As Lir improves Lasvargs life, he also grows closer to Cethlenn . . . as well as the wolfhound puppy strangely devoted to her. In time, they learn more of the dark magic that may be making pawns of them alland how Cethlenn herself could be the key to breaking a spell that clouds the entire kingdom. With transporting language and a magnificent dragon masterfully rendered with a range of emotions, Eoin Colfer and P.J. Lynch make their own magic in this classic fantasy with a light feminist twist.