DragonSpell by Donita K Paul, 2004

One Dragon Egg Holds the Key to the Future.

Once a slave, Kale is given the unexpected opportunity to become a servant to Paladin. Yet this young girl has much to learn about the difference between slavery and service.

A Desperate Search Begins…

A small band of Paladin’s servants rescue Kale from danger but turn her from her destination: The Hall, where she was to be trained. Feeling afraid and unprepared, Kale embarks on a perilous quest to find the meech dragon egg stolen by the foul Wizard Risto. First, she and her comrades must find Wizard Fenworth. But their journey is threatened when a key member of the party is captured, leaving the remaining companions to find Fenworth, attempt an impossible rescue, and recover the egg whose true value they have not begun to suspect… 

This is a great book for any fantasy lover.

I'm going to say that right now. If you are not a Christian, that does not exclude you from these great books, but if you are a Christian, they're that much better.

Kale is the proverbial orphan, down-on-her luck and unconfident in herself. She found a rare dragon egg in her home town, and is now on her way to deliver it to the great scholars of Wulder (a great creator parallel to God) for them to take care of. She is bright, lovable and sweet, and but she also can be clumsy, unconfident to the point of crippling herself, and over-dependant on her feelings rather than the council of older and wiser people. 

She is waylayed on her journey and told she must travel another path, and along the way she discovers secrets about her family and her abilities that she never knew before, learning to know Wulder and Paladin (A Jesus equivalent) in the process. 

This is a very richly imagined world, with dragons as well as Doneels, O'rants, and Emerlindians (all races you will soon learn to know and love). It is wonderfully written and a fantastic start to a series I have read many, many times over the past few years. When it comes to Christian fantasy this is some of the best I've found.

For those of you who like romance, this series does have some. By the end of the series - well, I won't spoil it, but SOMEONE might just be married. For those who don't like romance, this book has none and the books that do have it are not overpowering. A wonderful, well-balanced book for any reader, I completely and whole-heartedly reccomend these books to any who is interested!