Showing results by author "D. K. Holmberg" in All Categories

Life on the farm at the edge of the kingdom is anything but routine for Ashan. The plains around Berestal suffer from severe storms, making travel to the city difficult, with the threat of an attack from the people of Vard always looming. He long ago abandoned dreams of serving as a dragon rider, caring for his injured father and brother, but everything is about to change.

Though Laric's grandmother has returned, he fears an ancient power has come with her. Searching for the means to help her leads Laric back to his home—where he finds mages targeting dragons, only now to drain away their potential. Laric must uncover the reason behind this attack to stop the Grand Mage and to save his grandmother. The key lies in the once potent protections that Laric had a hand in destroying. If he can't rebuild them, a greater danger than the Grand Mage will escape—and all the dragon potential Laric has bonded won't be enough to stop it.

Jasn, a warrior known as the Wrecker of Rens, seeks vengeance for the loss of his beloved to the deadly draasin during the Endless War, wanting nothing more than to sacrifice himself in the process. When an old friend offers a dangerous chance for him to finally succeed, the key to understanding what he finds requires him to abandon all that he believes. Ciara, a water seeker of Rens living on the edge of the arid waste, longs for the strength to help her people.

Having stopped Lorren and saving the egg, Jason now faces his most dangerous threat as Lorach moves on Dragon Haven. With the city under attack from a strange new power, only with an understanding of the misfit dragons will Jason - and the dragons - finally be free. When even Dragon Haven seeks to use their power, Jason is forced to make a choice between the people who took him in and the dragons he pledged to protect.

Ashan has saved his homeland, but the threat from the king—along with Ashan's mentor—remains. The price for saving Berestal was high. His once recovered brother is now debilitated again, while his sister struggles to connect to Affelah, leaving Ashan to wonder what path he should take. When the king threatens the Wilds, Ashan must discover the truth of a land long ignored, as it might be the key to stopping the king and the spread of the dangerous power of the murtar.

Ashan has returned to the Vard lands, becoming what his people claim him to be: a traitor. Now that he's connected to the power of Affellah, the king will stop at nothing to bring him back. That includes attacking Ashan's home and those he cares about. Once again, he must leave the Vard lands before he can fully understand the power of Affellah. Saving his people has already meant betrayal. Can he still find a way to be their Servant?

The kingdom has warred with the Vard long enough. Having gone with the Servant of the Vard, Ashan hopes to end that violence. First, he must find himself—even if it means coming to understand the strange Vard magic. When he finds an ancient and dangerous threat unlike anything he's ever encountered that once spread throughout the Vard lands, he begins to understand his enemy. As Ashan discovers the threat might still be active, he learns the truth behind the Vard actions and their hatred of dragons. What can he do if the threat has already spread to his people?

After stopping two attacks on the kingdom, Ashan yearns to master his connection to the dragons and finally serve as a dragon mage. He has connected to a cycle of dragons, but he's still only a student and doesn't understand what it truly means to be a dragon mage.

As a new student in the Dragon Academy, Ashan wants nothing more than to understand his connection to the dragons and to harness their power, but he might have come to learn of his power too late for him to use it. Attempts to harness the magic that burns within him haven't succeeded, and he's consoled knowing that if nothing else, he can learn to be a dragon rider.

The best of Deep Magic: Volume 1—fantastical worlds of space adventures, changelings, and dragons await—stories with depth, strong protagonists, high tension, all told while pulling at your heartstrings, or making you smile with understanding. In this volume, you'll find twenty-two stories, including many novelettes. Go on adventures from deep space to ancient Rome (with magic), to Mars, and many other new fantasy worlds.

The Grand Mage's plan has been thwarted, but he and his allies still search for power, but Laric still doesn't know what he intends—only that he must be stopped. As Laric searches for answers, and his friends struggle to understand the nature of the newly formed dragon bond, he finds the link to the dragon Sashaak has begun to change. The dragons share memories, but there are parts of their shared memories they have lost—and that might be the key to what the Grand Mage intends. Power builds, and the dragons feel the rising influence. Soon all will feel that influence.

Executioners don’t solve crimes; they punish those who commit them. Or, so Finn thought before apprenticed to one. Poverty-stricken Finn Jagger would give anything to heal his ailing mother. With his father imprisoned, Finn has joined a thieving crew to earn the money he needs to save her. When the latest heist turns to disaster and lands him on death row, Finn’s future seems to be tied up with a noose. Until the king’s executioner claims him as an apprentice. Finn soon learns an executioner has far more power and greater responsibility than he’d ever realized.

Trained to kill from a young age, Gavin Lorren finally escaped that life. No more killing innocents. No more working alone. Holed up in a quiet city that has outlawed magic, Gavin finds himself drawn into dangers unlike any he’s ever faced before. Each job tests him more than the last, and each tied to the kind of magic he’d hoped to avoid.

The key to finding the one responsible for the attack on Terndahl involves crossing the waste, but is Tolan willing to risk the tenuous peace they've achieved for revenge? Now a master shaper, Tolan must serve the Academy, but he understands the risk his mother poses. While others want to study the power out on the waste, Tolan sees the need to look beyond Terndahl. His mother remains at large, and they still don’t know her ultimate goal.

Now that Tolan knows the secret of the Draasin Lord, he recognizes more needs to be done. As a student, he’s not in a position to be able to do more, but as a master shaper, he’d be free to travel as he feels necessary. When another attack targets the academy, Tolan knows his unique abilities might make him the only shaper able to respond.

With the threat of rogue elementals escaping from the element bond and fear of another attack by the Draasin Lord, life at the edge of Terndahl is difficult for Tolan. Without any magic of his own, he spends his days working a menial job as a carpenter’s apprentice. When an elemental attack draws the attention of the Inquisitors from the Academy, everything changes.

The Inquisitors have been stopped, but the one who leads them remains at large. Tolan discovers a dangerous plot against the Academy - and all of Terndahl - the Inquisitors have planned for far longer than any have suspected. The power involved is unlike anything ever encountered by those within the Academy. Tolan isn’t sure he’s capable of understanding what has happened, but with his connection to the elementals, he might be the only one able. The key to what’s happening is tied to something in Tolan’s past.

After discovering the Inquisitor’s plot within the Academy, Tolan is offered a chance to go with his father and learn from the Draasin Lord. Doing so not only means turning against the Academy and everything he has come to know, but means the Inquisitors will succeed in their plan. When the Grand Master comes to him asking a dangerous favor, Tolan must make a choice that might bring him into direct contact with the Draasin Lord. Everything he’s been taught about the elementals and the Draasin Lord is wrong.

The magic of the ancient dragons cannot be ignored. Learning he’s descended from the ancient Deshazl, those once known as the Dragonwalkers, has changed nothing for Fes. He continues to serve Azithan and the empire, even after deceiving them. The ancient Deshazl magic lives within him, but Fes doesn’t know how to control it or even if he should try. An old nemesis approaches him with a job he can’t refuse, and he’s forced to head toward Toulen. When betrayal separates him from from a friend in need, Fes must begin to understand how to use his Deshazl magic.

Still trying to master his magic, Fes begins to understand the nature of his power - along with the risks. With a resurrected dragon once more in the world and with the empire believing the worst of the threat is gone, the remaining Deshazl must stop the Damhur incursion into the empire. When a rescue of captured Deshazl goes wrong, Fes finds that his knowledge of his Deshazl abilities might not be enough. Having lived most of his life caring only for himself, he’s now a part of something greater.