“Hanalea’s bloody bones!” he yelped, flinging himself backward and hoping he didn’t land flat on his back in another mudpot. He was nearly there when one foot broke through the fragile surface, sending him calf-deep into the gray, sticky, superheated mud. Then, placing his feet carefully, he stood and retreated to solid ground. Sliding the tip under the clump, he pried it from the mud and lifted it free, dropping it into the deerskin bag that hung from his shoulder. He extended his digging stick toward a patch of plants with bilious green flowers at the edge of the spring. He’d tied a bandana over his mouth and nose, but his eyes still stung and teared from the sulfur fumes that boiled upward from the bubbling ooze. With the help of her friend, the cadet Amon Byrne, she navigates the treacherous Gray Wolf Court, hoping she can unravel the conspiracy coalescing around her before it's too late.Han Alister squatted next to the steaming mud spring, praying that the thermal crust would hold his weight. She aspires to be like Hanalea-the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage.

But Raisa's mother Queen Marianna is weak and distracted by the handsome Gavan Bayar, High Wizard of the Fells. Now more than ever, there's a need for a strong queen. The people of the Fells are starving and close to rebellion. After a long period of quiet, the power of the Wizard Council is once again growing. Wars are raging to the south, and threaten to spread into the high country. Now court life in Fellsmarch pinches like a pair of too-small shoes. Meanwhile, Princess Raisa ana'Marianna, the heir to the Gray Wolf throne of the Fells, has just spent three years of relative freedom with her father's family at Demonai Camp - riding, hunting, and working the famous Clan markets.

And the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back. Only later does he learn that it has an evil history - it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago.

Han takes an amulet from one of the wizards, Micah Bayar, to prevent him from using it against them. When 16-year-old Han Alister and his Clan friend Dancer encounter three underage wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea, he has no idea that this event will precipitate a cascade of disasters that will threaten everything he cares about. Adventure, magic, war and ambition conspire to throw together an unlikely group of companions in a struggle to save their world. The first book in an epic fantasy series from debut author Cinda Williams Chima.

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima