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The discovery of a sword confirms the Gods are once again readying for war, forcing their chosen heroine to decide between loyalty or betrayal and face daemons of her making.

The Bard
Dragonslayer Book One
by Jules Cory
Genre: Epic Fantasy Adventure, Swords and Sorcery

A thrilling fantasy novel of magic and ancient pagan beliefs.
The first volume in an epic trilogy set in a land of dragons and sorcery.
Character-led fiction which explores the bonds of friendship and how they can be broken.

The discovery of a sword that had been lost for generations confirms that the Gods are readying for war once again. The sword holds the secrets to powers thought lost forever. It heralds the return of a Dragonslayer, capable of protecting humankind from the wrath of the ancient deities. But there is a problem. The sword-bearer is a seven year old girl.

Tallen learns quickly how to negotiate the politics of the royal court as she tries to find a place for herself in the capital city. She discovers a talent for being invisible in crowded places. Infiltrating restricted areas. And stealing precious items. But when her skills are commandeered by the King, she finds herself in a world of magick where her latent talents are being fought over. Unaware of her magickal ancestry, she is unprepared for the secret plots to control her and her powers. Schemes, by both friend and foe, that send her into danger.

The discovery of the Empathy Crystal forces Tallen to confront her ancient blood-line and the powers lying within her. She finds herself caught in the middle as the fault-line between the old pantheon of Gods and the new monotheistic religion cracks open. The war between neighbouring kingdoms covers the underlying battle for the power locked within the land they are fighting over. And the souls of the people living there.

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The Seer
Dragonslayer Book Two

After leaving the royal court, Tallen finds herself drawn back to the politics of a kingdom increasingly beset by war. The return of her father’s sword comes at the price of reclaiming her heritage as a Dragonslayer, while the stakes for both her personal and her prince’s freedom are becoming increasing costly.

Sent on a covert mission from her king, Tallen travels to obtain information regarding the stolen Empathy Crystal. However, Tallen soon discovers that there are other plans for her that involve her bloodline and her claim to a potentially lethal weapon. The journey becomes increasingly dangerous as others scheme to control the destructive potential of her Dragonslayer ancestry, resulting in battles with pirates and northern raiders. Her personal enemy, Villermir, is also never far from causing trouble as he learns to control the Empathy Crystal, harnessing its devastating force to crush her.

While the monotheistic patriarchy of Baila extends its tendrils into the souls of new believers, daemons and the old Gods start to take a more active role in the lives of men. Tallen finds wonders and miracles hidden in her Empathy bloodline, and a strength and resilience in her Dragonslayer blood. But dark shadows are now gathering that will require further exploration of her magical inheritance.

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The Druid
Dragonslayer Book Three

Faulknar is losing the war against Lindvane, with Gallowgla and Hilman joining the fight against the kingdom. Villermir has gained mastery of the Empathy Crystal and is using it to corrupt and despoil the land. Monsters that the Dragonslayer and her dragon were created to destroy have returned to rampage across the Three Kingdoms.
Having been exiled from Faulknar as a traitor, Tallen tries to hide from her responsibilities and recover from the betrayal of those she trusted. The events within the Three Kingdoms, however, will force her to return to those she rejected and the kingdom she turned her back on. As her powers grow, dark forces swirl around her to claim those powers for themselves with enemies from her past, as well as her Goddess, seeking to use her to realise their own ambitions.
Tallen must learn to trust those who would help her and embrace her powers, knowing her greatest challenge may come from the darkness that lies within herself.
The Druid brings Tallen’s story to a violent conclusion, forcing her to face her fears as she fights to protect those she loves.

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As a veterinary nurse, Jules has often eased the stresses of her canine and feline patients with stories of myth and magic, wizards and dragons. She had published chapters in academic textbooks and professional journals, but has traded the scientific formula and Harvard referencing for the creative freedom of writing fantasy novels.
The Dragonslayer series follows Tallen as she discovers what it means to be a Dragonslayer, pawn of her king and the Gods, having to navigate between friendship and betrayal, power and corruption, life and death.

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What inspired you to write the Dragonslayer series?
Sometimes random events can be the inspiration for stories and this is certainly true for the Dragonslayer series. There were three items that provided the nexus for the story to revolve around.

The first item was seen when passing a small second-hand shop with a painting in the window. Although I was drawn in by the scene, it was more than I could afford at the time so I walked on. I resisted for 10 minutes before returning to the shop and buying the painting. That view became Cloud Mountain and the setting for the cottage by the lake.
The second item was given as a present – a duck-egg blue and rose coloured dragon, curled with its head resting on its tail. The statue is included in the books as my dragon, waiting for her slayer.

The last item was obtained as a chance finding when sheltering from a summer rainstorm in a nearby shop. The print was of a raven-haired woman holding a sword containing an orange dragon’s eye – and my heroine, Tallen, looked out at me from that picture.
Polytheistic religions and the possibility of magic has always interested me, and I took those elements, added the three chance items, and wove it all into an epic adventure.

What are the key messages in the series?
I think the key messages within stories are personal to those that read them and bring their own experiences, filtering the characters’ journeys through their own needs at any given moment. And, as such, this can change over time.

However, for me, I think one of the predominant issues facing Tallen and her friends is one of loyalty. Of having to balance duty, obligation and expectation with the desire to keep people safe and maintain treasured relationships. And this can involve different people who have very different ideas about what loyalty and obligation mean.

One of the factors that developed over the three books is that of fathers and what that can mean in differing contexts. There are a number of father-figures in the books. Some are blood-relatives, while others have found themselves in the position by chance. The interplay between nurture and legacy in shaping someone who depends on you was an interesting theme to play with, for both protagonists and antagonists.