Dragonslayer

In the medieval Northlands, a dangerous family seeks power. They slaughter all who get in their way. Children’s rhymes hint at what’s to come, but no one recognizes the danger at hand. Astrid doesn’t know she holds the key to this power. She’s just a blacksmith who makes swords for dragonslayers. But Astrid has a dark secret.... A dragon once chewed her up and spit her out. She hides the old scars covering her body through shapeshifting. But the time for hiding is over.  

Astrid is reluctant to travel the winter route beyond the Northlands, even though it's her duty. She'd rather stay home in her village, surrounded by friends and neighbors. Ignoring the bonds of tradition, she decides to spend the cold winter months in the warmth of her blacksmithing shop. Why should she leave the comfort of her cottage to serve and protect foreigners who might raid and harm her native Northlands? But then a traveling merchant steals Starlight, the first dragonslayer's sword Astrid forged and her last link to her sweetheart DiStephan.

Desperate for an explanation to how she survived a dragon bite, Astrid believes she has been protected by the black stone she keeps with her at all times, a stone that emerged from the sole of her foot a year ago. Determined to find out what the stone is and what kind of powers it possesses, Astrid begins a journey that leads her to alchemists and an army of men under the rule of the powerful warrior, Mandulane, the acting lord of the Krystr army. She must find a way to understand the stone and the powers she's convinced it must hold before it's too late.

In the fourth and final book of the Dragonslayer series, Mandulane's army is poised to attack the Northlands in the name of a powerful god, but in truth Mandulane is using the act of spreading this new faith as a way to disguise his own personal greed and hunger for power.