The Last Dragonslayer (the Last Dragonslayer, #1)

The first book in the Chronicles of Kazam series is set in the Ununited Kingdoms, a fictional version of Britain fragmented into dozens of small, often quarrelsome nations. Magic exists but has been fading for decades, reducing once-mighty sorcerers to mundane jobs like rewiring houses and unblocking drains. In a brief prologue, the narrator, Jennifer Strange, notes that she was once famous: Her face appeared on merchandise, she was named Woman of the Year, and two people tried to kill her, all in less than a week.

Jennifer, nearly sixteen, is an indentured foundling raised by the Lobsterhood, a convent officially called the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster. She serves as acting manager of Kazam Mystical Arts Management, an employment agency for sorcerers based in the Kingdom of Hereford. Kazam's founder, the Great Zambini, disappeared about a year earlier, leaving Jennifer to oversee forty-five mystical practitioners, most retired or infirm, with only nine holding current licenses. The organization operates out of Zambini Towers, a decrepit former hotel full of enchanted oddities. Jennifer is accompanied everywhere by the Quarkbeast, a fearsome-looking but loyal creature created centuries ago by the Mighty Shandar, the most powerful sorcerer in history.

While supervising a house-rewiring job, Jennifer receives a new foundling trainee: Tiger Prawns, a sharp twelve-year-old foundling delivered by flying carpet inside a cereal box. That same day, Kevin Zipp, one of Kazam's two pre-cognitives, reports a powerful premonition: Maltcassion, the world's last dragon, will die by a Dragonslayer's sword. Kazam's other pre-cognitive, Randolph, the Fourteenth Earl of Pembridge, confirms the vision and supplies a precise time: next Sunday at noon. Kevin also mentions "Big Magic," a rare renewal event that could recharge the fading power of sorcery. Shortly after, a lawyer named Mr. Trimble, representing the Consolidated Useful Stuff (ConStuff) Land Development Corporation, offers two million moolah for the precise date and time of the dragon's death, since by ancient decree, a dragon's land belongs to whoever claims it first upon the dragon's death.

The next morning, Wizard Moobin, one of Kazam's senior sorcerers, accidentally transmutes a lead toy soldier into gold, a feat far beyond his normal abilities, signaling a dramatic surge in magical power. Jennifer visits Mother Zenobia, the convent's blind, nearly 150-year-old mother superior and former enchantress, who recounts the history of the Dragonpact. Centuries ago, when dragons terrorized the islands, the Mighty Shandar brokered a treaty: Dragons received protected Dragonlands surrounded by magical boundary stones that vaporize any trespassing human, and in exchange, the dragons stopped attacking people. A single Dragonslayer was appointed to oversee the arrangement.

Back at Kazam, Lady Mawgon, the most senior sorceress, leads a mutiny over ConStuff's offer, arguing the money could fund everyone's retirement. Jennifer refuses to sell the information, believing that profiting from the Dragondeath could make the prophecy self-fulfilling and might permanently sever magic's connection to dragons. Tiger defuses the standoff by calling the news and publicly announcing the predicted time and date, rendering ConStuff's advantage worthless.

Jennifer seeks out Brian Spalding, the current Dragonslayer. Spalding, kept alive for nearly 150 years by Old Magic while awaiting his successor, reveals that the Mighty Shandar wrote a list of all future Dragonslayers centuries ago, and Jennifer's name was the last on it. He transmits centuries of knowledge directly into her mind through The Dragonslayer's Manual and reveals that she is not an apprentice but the Dragonslayer proper. With his duty transferred, age overtakes him instantly, and he crumbles to dust, leaving Jennifer his sword Exhorbitus, an armored Slayermobile, and the Dragonstation headquarters.

Now able to pass through the boundary stones without being vaporized, Jennifer drives into the Dragonlands and treks to Maltcassion's lair. The last dragon proves to be an intelligent, philosophical creature who asks Jennifer to remove a rusted sword embedded in his shoulder. She addresses the gathered press outside the Dragonlands, declaring herself the new Dragonslayer.

Political pressure mounts. King Snodd IV summons Jennifer and demands she stake the crown's claim across the Dragonlands, offering land, a title, and freedom from servitude. Jennifer tells the king she will consider his offer but privately intends to refuse. The Duke of Brecon, ruler of a neighboring duchy, reveals that his real concern is defense: He believes Snodd intends to use the conflict as a pretext to invade Wales. Three staged incidents bearing the hallmarks of a Dragonattack provide a legal pretext to declare Maltcassion rogue. On a second visit, the dragon denies involvement and tells Jennifer that "all is going to plan," hinting that he is orchestrating events toward a predetermined end. Sir Matt Grifflon, Hereford's most celebrated knight, attempts to assassinate Jennifer to seize Exhorbitus, but the Quarkbeast drives him off. King Snodd then declares the Quarkbeast illegal and sends police to arrest Jennifer.

Lady Mawgon, despite her hostility, unexpectedly hides Jennifer using an occlusion spell that renders her invisible to the searching officers, explaining that Big Magic must be completed. The next morning, Jennifer disguises herself, retrieves Exhorbitus, and crashes the Slayermobile through police barricades to reach the Dragonlands. Inside, she discovers vast sections already staked with ConStuff claim markers and finds Gordon van Gordon, her apprentice and press officer, hammering in stakes. Gordon reveals that ConStuff has been running a sixty-eight-year operation called Project Dragon, planting him as an apprentice to gain legal access to the Dragonlands. The staged Dragonattacks were also ConStuff's doing. When the Quarkbeast charges to protect Jennifer from Gordon's drawn revolver, Gordon shoots and kills him. Jennifer fires Gordon; he reflexively resigns, revoking his apprentice status, and since only a Dragonslayer or apprentice may survive within the Dragonlands, the boundary magic vaporizes him instantly.

At Maltcassion's lair, the dragon reveals the deeper truth: Shandar tricked the dragons into helping weave the boundary magic but made it a prison rather than a haven, slowly draining their power. Maltcassion insists Jennifer must kill him at noon, explaining that the Dragon Council, the dragons' governing body, planned this outcome for four hundred years. As a clock strikes twelve, Jennifer reluctantly thrusts Exhorbitus into the dragon's throat. Maltcassion dies, and the marker stone falls silent. Artillery shells begin falling into the Dragonlands. Grief and rage overwhelm Jennifer. She grasps Exhorbitus, and an uncontrollable fury channels energy from the eight million people gathered outside, sending a torrent of white energy through the sword and into Maltcassion's body. This is Big Magic.

Jennifer awakens to find two young dragons, Feldspar Axiom Firebreath IV and Colin, born from Maltcassion's death. Feldspar explains that dragons are renewed by death: Killing one produces two, but a dragon that dies of old age leaves no offspring. Shandar designed the imprisonment to ensure the dragons' eventual extinction. Maltcassion used the last of the dragon magic to broadcast the Dragondeath premonition and a broad feeling of greed, drawing millions whose avarice generated the emotional energy to fuel Big Magic. Jennifer served as the conduit because she is a Berzerker, a rare warrior who can draw energy from surrounding people during uncontrollable rage. The Big Magic has unwoven Shandar's prison spell and rewoven the boundary so that the Dragonlands remain protected but the dragons may pass freely. Feldspar reveals that Maltcassion's final word to Jennifer, "Gwanjii," is an old dragon word meaning "friend."

The spell of greed breaks, and the spectators disperse. King Snodd and Brecon do not go to war. Magic returns with renewed strength. After a week in prison, Jennifer receives a pardon and returns to run Kazam. ConStuff goes bankrupt. Jennifer donates all Dragonslayer merchandising rights to the Troll War Widows Association and serves as the dragons' ambassador. A statue of the Quarkbeast is raised outside Zambini Towers; it frequently frightens animals and small children, which Jennifer considers fitting.