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They are seven players in a game of deadly magic -- Eltiron, Prince of Sevarin; Crystalorn, Princess of Barinash; Ranlyn, the desert rider; Jermain, the outlaw; Vandaris, the soldier; Carachel, the Wizard-King; and Amberglas, the sorceress. Each of them has a secret, and each fights his or her part in the thrilling battle that has put seven kingdoms on the very edge of destruction. Filled with wit, swordplay, humor, and intrigue, this early novel is one of Patricia C. Wrede's best.

Take one bored princess. Make her the seventh daughter in a very proper royal family. Have her run away.

Add one powerful, fascinating, dangerous dragon.

Princess Cimerone has never met anyone (or anything) like the dragon Kazul. But then, she's never met a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird or a stone prince either.

Princess Cimerone ran away to find some excitement.

She's found plenty.

Those wicked wizards are at it again! This time they are draining power from the Enchanted Forest. And that does not sit well with Mendanbar the King. On the advice of the witch Morwen, Mendanbar decides to consult with Kazul, the King of Dragons. When he arrives at Kazul's cave, he meets Princess Cimorene and learns that Kazul has been captured by those horrible wizards. Mendanbar and Cimorene will have to search for him, traveling over mountains and past man-eating giants, terrifying rock snakes, and an assortment of magic-wielders.

The third of four volumes in the critically acclaimed Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Queen Cimorene, Morwen the witch, and a host of other characters once again foil the plots of the perfidious wizards in this third volume of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

This time, the dastardly wizards have stolen King Mendanbar's magic sword, vital to the health of the forest, right out of the castle armory. Morwen joins Cimorene, Kazul, Telemain, several cats, and Killer on a quest to retrieve the sword. Meanwhile, back at home, the forces of the wizards are gathering.

"Mother taught me to be polite to dragons...."

Daystar never thought he'd be walking through the Enchanted Forest with a magic sword, a fire-witch, and a baby dragon. He never dreamed his mother, Cimorene, would tell him to leave their home and not to return until his task was complete. Or that he alone held the power to release King Mendanbar and the Enchanted Forest from the wizards' evil spell. He doesn't even know who King Mendanbar is.

But Daystar learns quickly, and that's good, because he's about to encounter magic and wizards and dragons - quite a deadly combination.

Eff was born a thirteenth child. Her twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son. This means he's supposed to possess amazing talent -- and she's supposed to bring only bad things to her family and her town. Undeterred, her family moves to the frontier, where her father will be a professor of magic at a school perilously close to the magical divide that separates settlers from the beasts of the wild.

With wit and wonder, Patricia Wrede creates an alternate history of westward expansion that will delight fans of both J. K. Rowling and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Eff is riding west, away from the safety of the frontier city she's always known....

Eff could be a powerful magician if she wanted to. Except she's not sure she wants that kind of responsibility. Everyone keeps waiting for her to do something amazing--or to fail in a spectacular way. Worse, her twin brother, Lan, a powerful double seventh son, is jealous of all the attention she's been getting.

Even as Eff protests that she's just an ordinary girl, she's asked to travel past the Barrier Spell with one of the new professors at her father's school. The land west of the Barrier is full of dangers, both magical and wild. Eff will need to use all her strength--magical and otherwise--to come safely back home.

With wit, magic, and a touch of good pioneer sense, Patricia C. Wrede once again weaves a fantastic tale of the very wild west.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia C. Wrede, the fantastic conclusion to her tale of magic on the western frontier.

Eff is an unlucky thirteenth child...but also the seventh daughter in her family. Her twin brother, Lan, is a powerful double seventh son. Her life at the edge of the Great Barrier Spell is different from anyone else's that she knows.

When the government forms an expedition to map the Far West, Eff has the opportunity to travel farther than anyone in the world. With Lan, William, Professor Torgeson, Wash, and Professor Ochiba, Eff finds that nothing on the wild frontier is as they expected. There are strange findings in their research, a long prarie winter spent in too-close quarters, and more new species, magical and otherwise, dangerous and benign, than they ever expected to find. And then spring comes, and the explorers realize how tenuous life near the Great Barrier Spell may be if they don't find a way to stop a magical flood in a hurry. Eff's unique way of viewing magic has saved the settlers time and again, but this time all of Columbia is at stake if she should fail.

Two girls contend with sorcery in England's Regency age

Since they were children, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart. As Cecelia fights boredom in her small country town, Kate visits London to mingle with the brightest lights of English society.

At the initiation of a powerful magician into the Royal College of Wizards, Kate finds herself alone with a mysterious witch who offers her a sip from a chocolate pot. When Kate refuses the drink, the chocolate burns through her dress and the witch disappears. It seems that strange forces are convening to destroy a beloved wizard, and only Kate and Cecelia can stop the plot. But for two girls who have to contend with the pressures of choosing dresses and beaux for their debuts, deadly magic is only one of their concerns.

On their honeymoons, Kate and Cecelia confront a plot against Europe

Ocean voyages do not agree with wizards, and seasickness during the Channel crossing is the price Cecelia must pay for her budding magical skill. As her nausea ebbs, she is comforted by her new husband, James, and the knowledge that at long last they are on their honeymoon. In their company is Cecelia's cousin Kate, newly minted as the Marchioness of Schofield, and her husband Thomas. The shared journey guarantees the two couples a happy start to married life, if they can survive the perils of the Continent.

In Calais, a mysterious woman visits Cecelia with a package intended for Thomas's mother. Inside is an alabaster flask of noble manufacture, one of the royal artifacts that have been vanishing all over Europe as part of a magical plot against the French crown. This is no simple honeymoon: On their tour of Europe, Kate and Cecelia must save the monarchy from an emperor-in-exile named Napoleon.

Now married with children, Cecelia and Kate must face a threat to the wizarding world

It's been a decade since Kate and Cecelia foiled Napoleon's plot to reclaim the French crown. The cousins now have estates, children, and a place at the height of wizarding society. It is 1828, and though magic remains at the heart of the British Empire, a new power has begun to make itself felt across England: the steam engine. As iron tracks crisscross the countryside, the shaking of the locomotives begins to disrupt the workings of English magic, threatening the very foundations of the Empire.

A foreign wizard on a diplomatic mission to England vanishes, and the Prime Minister sends Cecelia's husband to investigate. In order to accompany her husband to the north of England, Cecelia leaves her children in Kate's care. As Cecelia and James fight for the future of magic, Kate is left with a no less daunting problem: how to care for a gaggle of disobedient, spell-casting tots.

A princess fights a faceless enemy in a forest filled with magic in this tale of "high-style fantasy and adventure" from the author of Dealing with Dragons (The New York Times).

Trouble is brewing in Alkyra. While the kingdom's noblemen squabble, on their borders an ancient enemy, the Lithmern, raises an army. As the head of the Noble House of Brenn attempts to organize an alliance, the princess Alethia celebrates her twentieth birthday. She is a remarkable woman: quick-witted, beautiful, and handy with a throwing knife. But on the next night, she passes through a dark corridor on her way to the banquet hall, and never emerges from the shadows. The Lithmern have kidnapped the princess.

When Alethia regains consciousness, an evil Lithmern with a face made of shadows is carrying her through the forest. These are magic woods, home to fabled creatures whose existence she has always doubted. To find her way home, Alethia will have to learn to trust in the old tales, whose legends of magic and daring hold the only hope of saving her kingdom.

In the oppressive city of Drinn, a trio of magical strangers offers a servant girl the chance of a new life

Drinn is not a safe place to be a witch. Ranira knows that better than most, for when she was just a child, the temple guards burned her parents at the stake for practicing magic. Now an indentured servant for a brutal innkeeper, she lives every day with the shame of her parents' alleged crime.

There is no worse time to visit Drinn than during the Midwinter Festival, when the city gates are sealed so that no outsider can witness the temple's secret rituals. And at Ranira's inn, three guests have overstayed their welcome. Attempting to protect Ranira from her master's cruelty, the three reveal their magical powers and attract the attention of the temple guards. Now, to save her new friends from certain death, Ranira must unleash the power that cost her parents their lives.

In the magical world of Lyra, a mysterious instrument gives a minstrel undreamed-of power

When Emereck and Flindaran leave a caravan in search of adventure, it isn't long before they stumble upon great danger. Emereck, a trained minstrel, and Flindaran, a nobleman masquerading as a tramp, have found a long-abandoned castle, and in it, one of Lyra's most sought-after treasures: the Harp of Imach Thyssel.

Emereck recognizes the perfect white bow from legend: It is said to possess the power of life and death over all mankind. Now, to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, he'll have to learn to harness its strength to create and destroy, with the fate of the kingdom hanging in the balance.

In the magical world of Lyra, an innkeeper is forced to confront her darkest secret

For more than a decade, Kayl has run a modest country inn. She opened it with her husband, and they managed it together until a summer illness took him away, leaving her alone with their two children. The three of them get by, living happily together as the years pass, but everything changes the day a sorceress asks for a room.

Her name is Corrana, and by her silver brooch Kayl knows that she is a member of the order of Sisterhood of Stars, a coven of witches that Kayl left after a secret mission went horribly wrong. Kayl is sure that Corrana has come to take her back to the life she had renounced years before. Now, to save her family and her world, she will have to unlock a side of herself that she buried long ago.

In this book from Wrede's acclaimed Lyra fantasy series, a young woman must fight for her life while on a quest to claim a magical family heirloom

Three weeks after Eleret's mother is killed, the messenger arrives with the tragic news. She died far from home, succumbing to wounds sustained in battle, and Eleret must travel to reclaim her belongings. The overland journey to the city of Ciaron is treacherous, but Eleret has no fear. She straps a dagger to her leg and sets off to recover one of her mother's prized possessions: a ring etched with a raven. Though she makes it to Ciaron safely, getting home is another story.

Eleret doesn't know what's special about her mother's ring, but someone wanted it badly enough to kill for it. To make it home in one piece, she must unlock the mysteries of the ring her mother died to protect.

Kim doesn't hesitate when a stranger offers her a small fortune to break into the traveling magician's wagon in search of a silver bowl. Kim isn't above a bit of breaking-and-entering. Having grown up a waif in the dirty streets of London-disguised as a boy!-has schooled her in one hard lesson: steal from them before they steal from you.

But there is something odd about this magician. He isn't like the other hucksters and swindlers that Kim is used to. When he catches her in the act, Kim thinks she's done for--until he suggests she become his apprentice. Kim wonders how tough it could be faking a bit of hocus pocus.

But Mairelon isn't an act. His magic is real.

Happy in her new life as an apprentice to the powerful magician Mairelon, 16-year-old Kim is horrified when a nosy relative determines to turn Kim - a former street urchin - into... a lady! But real trouble begins when several wizards of Kim's acquaintance disappears. Then Mairelon's magic disappears!

It's up to Kim to unravel the mystery. And to do that she will have to return to her old life back in the dark and dirty streets of London.

Snow White and Rose Red live on the edge of the forest that conceals the elusive border of Faerie. They know enough about Faerie lands and mortal magic to be concerned when they find two human sorcerers setting spells near the border. And when the kindly, intelligent black bear wanders into their cottage some months later, they realize the connection between his plight and the sorcery they saw in the forest.