Dragonslayer

Eight-year-old Ivy hides her dragon drawings from her disapproving mother. Her friends Violet and Daffodil arrive for a Truth Seekers Club meeting. Violet produces a copied map and reveals a suspicious detail: Ivy’s father, Heath the Dragonslayer, recently claimed to have ridden to the distant mountain dragon palace and challenged the dragons there, but the journey is impossible in the three days he was gone. The girls decide to follow Heath on his next mysterious trip to discover where he really goes.

Ten days later, Ivy sees Heath leaving suddenly with a hidden bag. Unable to fetch her friends in time, she follows him alone. At a guarded tunnel exit, Heath encounters Foxglove, a young Wingwatcher who attempts to enforce Heath’s own law requiring anyone leaving the underground city to state their purpose. Irritated, Heath claims he is inspecting orchards on official business.

After Heath climbs to the surface, Ivy approaches Foxglove and invents an excuse to follow him. Amused, Foxglove agrees to accompany her outside. In the forest, a dragon roars overhead. Foxglove immediately lifts Ivy into a tree and teaches her the crucial lesson: Always hide from dragons, never run. From their perch, Ivy watches her father race past in apparent panic. Then she glimpses a beautiful black dragon soaring overhead, its scales shimmering with dark colors. While Foxglove calls running from dragons cowardly, the dragon captivates Ivy. She tells Foxglove she loved seeing it, and the Wingwatcher confides that she also secretly admires dragons. Foxglove offers Ivy early training sessions and makes her promise never to go outside without a Wingwatcher escort.

Wren and her dragon companion Sky shelter in a valley near the Indestructible City. She tells Sky she must enter the city alone to obtain new clothes, as her old dress has become too small. Sky protests desperately, but after two days, reluctantly accepts the plan. Wren encourages him to practice flying during her absence.

Approaching the city, Wren discovers that it sits atop a steep cliff, accessible only by treacherous stairs or a cargo platform. Both routes are heavily guarded by soldiers in spiked armor. She watches from hiding as guards inform desperate refugee families that the new Invincible Lord will admit only one family, and only if they bring him the Dragonslayer. When one family begs to be allowed to visit the market, just for the day, to trade the goods they’ve brought, the guards demand that they first leave their children behind as collateral. They also declare that all orphans must be surrendered to the city permanently. Horrified, Wren abandons her plan to enter.

While retreating through the waiting crowd, she collides with a boy holding an enormous orange cat. The boy reveals that his name is Undauntable and that his cat is named Dragon. When Wren produces one of Sky’s shed baby scales to trade, Undauntable desperately wants it and offers her a pouch of silver coins. Having never encountered money before, Wren does not understand the coins’ value. Undauntable escorts her among the refugee community, showing her what she can buy with the coins: She acquires a complete set of new clothes, boots, a map, books, provisions, and Undauntable’s silver earring shaped like a dragon. When Undauntable correctly guesses that the scale came from a baby dragon and speculates about hunting it, Wren lies, claiming she found it in distant swamps. Undauntable reveals that he is the prince of the Indestructible City and predicts she will be dead within a year. After deliberately walking south to mislead any watchers, Wren circles back and returns to Sky in their hidden valley.

At 14, Leaf has spent six months as an unwilling dragonmancer apprentice assigned to Master Trout. Although his parents are thrilled, and Rowan and Grove group encouraged him to take the dangerous position to uncover secrets, Leaf resents every moment spent on menial chores instead of training to become a dragonslayer. He copes by having imaginary conversations with Wren in his head. His only relief comes during weekly training sessions in the forest with Rowan, Grove, and their expanded group, which now includes Cranberry, an acrobat, and twin brothers Mushroom and Thyme.

One day, Grove asks if Leaf has discovered anything in Trout’s house. Grove is angry because the dragonmancers recently used a supposed vision to confiscate crops and livestock from his father’s farm, and no villagers supported his objections at the village meeting. Leaf reports that Trout’s study is always locked. Grove volunteers to break in himself, and Rowan worries it is too dangerous, but six days later, when Trout is away, Leaf lets Grove into the house.

Grove picks the lock, and they enter together. The study contains numerous oversized, gem-studded artifacts that Leaf recognizes as dragon treasure. When he notices scratches in the floor, he slides a bookshelf away from the wall, revealing an enormous map and blueprint of the mountain dragon palace. The detailed drawing includes notes in an unknown language and additions in Trout’s own handwriting. Grove theorizes that their village, Talisman, was originally founded by treasure smugglers who became the dragonmancers. Overwhelmed, Leaf wishes Wren were there. Grove encourages him to imagine what advice she would give him, and the imaginary Wren in his head tells him he must copy this map for her sake. Leaf sits down and begins the painstaking work.

In the underground city of Valor, 13-year-old Ivy celebrates becoming an official Wingwatcher alongside her best friends, Violet and Daffodil. At the welcome ceremony, Commander Brook greets them warmly and asks Ivy about her uncle Stone, who left their underground city of Valor a year earlier, noting that he never recovered from what happened during Heath’s dragonslaying quest in the desert. When Violet tries to learn more, Brook deflects.

Foxglove arrives and accepts a thank-you drawing from Ivy. When Violet asks if Foxglove plans to retire, she reveals that most Wingwatchers from her cohort are staying on. Violet brings up the banishment of Pine and three other Wingwatchers, and Foxglove becomes cautious, suggesting they discuss it privately later. After Foxglove leaves, Violet reveals her secret theory to a shocked Ivy: She believes a revolutionary conspiracy is forming within the Wingwatchers to overthrow the government of Valor. As Daffodil confirms that this is why Violet joined, Ivy feels conflicted, as she realizes why her friends kept this secret from her: Her father is Heath, the ruler of Valor.

Heath arrives and inspects the new recruits, embarrassing Ivy by singling her out as his daughter. She senses the older Wingwatchers exchanging wary looks. During Heath’s speech praising the Wingwatchers, Ivy remembers seeing him flee in panic from a dragon and has the disturbing thought that perhaps he should not be Valor’s lord. After the ceremony, Foxglove warns Ivy to hide her love of dragons from Brook, who lost many people when Valor’s original above-ground village was burned. Observing Brook’s visible tension during Heath’s speech, Ivy wonders if the commander might be leading the conspiracy. She realizes that if Violet and Daffodil find proof of a revolution, she may be forced to choose between her family and her friends, her dream, and the dragons she loves.