K.V. Johansen

Sybertooth, 2009. Cover art by Artemisia.

Once there was a prince who set off on a quest for a magic sword.

He ran into a bit of trouble with a sorcerer, who didn't like trespassers, and the sorcerer's wolf-headed guards....Once there was a young woman who decided to run away from home....Luckily for the prince, who was in her father's dungeon by then, she decided to rescue him first. Luckily for both of them, Torrie came along as well.

Cossypha's father, a reclusive sorcerer, seems to have gone mad. He's done something truly horrible to the servants and, since becoming obsessed with a mysterious Great Spell, hardly even notices Cossy's existence. She's had enough of being treated like a child and forbidden to study sorcery, so when she discovers Prince Rufik in the dungeon, she decides to steal him. Rufik, though he doesn't like being forced to believe in magic, is on a quest for a legendary, dragon-slaying sword. His father's kingdom is being laid waste by a dragon and the Sword Wormbane may be their last hope. Among some of the creatures in the Wild Forest, there's a story that the sword was forged by a sorcerer long ago and hidden, against the day when it would be needed to save the kingdom of Erythroth. Torrie begins to suspect that the story of the sorcerer and the Sword Wormbane is bound up with his own past. Did his friend Wren foresee some terrible fate for him, or why didn't she ever tell him about the sword? Even if they survive the dragon, Torrie and Cossypha may still be bound by Torrie's promise to return to Mistglom Castle and set things right. And a mad sorcerer who can do ... that ... to his servants is not a man to trifle with.