In the Time of Dragon Moon

Despite her half-English blood and the fact that she's a girl, Uma wants nothing more than to be accepted as the next Adan (healer) of her father's Euit tribe. But when the English queen, Adela Pendragon, learns that Uma's father has developed a viable fertility treatment, she kidnaps Uma and the current Adan, holding their tribe hostage until the two of them help her conceive. After Uma's father dies, Uma is left alone in the strange world of the English court, harassed by the tyrannical Prince Desmond and beholden to Queen Adela's often-violent fits of madness. The one bright spot in Uma's life is Jackrun, the prince's cousin, who fulfills a prophecy through his unique bloodline: fairy, dragon, and human combined. Despite the Pendragon name, this story, set in the world of Carey's Dragon's Keep and Dragonswood, calls back to Arthurian legend only obliquely, with the author continuing to develop her own rich traditions and political intrigue. Readers who come expecting a traditional fairytale will find their assumptions disproven by the unexpected obstacles in Uma's path. Carey steers these plot twists gracefully toward an unorthodox but satisfying conclusion. Ages 12%E2%80%93up. (Mar.)