Kathy Bjornestad

Skullduggery

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. As far as Dill Rose knew, her home had been dragon-free until today. The family manor, Rose Hall, stood stoic and weather-beaten atop a hillside overlooking the Valley. Bordered by ash and birch, a river meandered through the Valley’s lowest reaches. Sheep grazed along the banks. They weren’t Rose family sheep—just a neighbor’s animals grazing on Uncle’s leased acreage. Lord knows, none of the Rose family Skullduggers would descend to sheep raising. They might be the barrel scrapers of the magical world, but they were still Practitioners.