Dragonspeaker Chronicles

Nellie Dreessen is a kitchen maid in the palace of Regent Bernard of Saardam. She has worked for two kings and two regents, has seen two royal families murdered through magic, has seen ghosts and demons, and kept her head down like a good girl. On her 50th birthday, she receives her late father’s diary, which describes a magical item that is so evil it needs to be kept in the church crypt: a box that contains dragon. Problem is someone has stolen the box.

Cast out from the palace, Nellie survives in the streets of Saardam with the poor and destitute and a dragon whose behavior she can't control but is the key to finding the last member of the royal family. The pompous Regent is hell-bent on finding the person who has killed his court advisor, and he has decided the dragon is guilty. If he doesn't find a culprit, his main source of money is at stake. The guards comb the city. It's only a matter of time before they find Nellie.

Take an adolescent boy. Make him angry. Add dragons. Saving Prince Bruno from the church crypts hasn't turned out the way Nellie had planned. The boy is morose, angry, hellbent on revenge, and incapable of wielding the power he has been given. But the group of refugees who have fled from the city have bigger concerns. It's winter, they need to survive, and find a safe place to recover and plan their next move. But the boy does something stupid. Through the prince's single impatient action, they don't have the time to recover anymore.