Ancient Strange And Lovely

In this stand-alone novel in the series, Bryn must save a dracling from a dangerous modern world that seems to have no place for an ancient dragon.

"You must go to the dragon. You must leave tonight." Before she even hears the words, Kaeldra already knows what she must do. She must search out the mother dragon whose draclings have just hatched and somehow get some of her precious milk. It's the only way to save her foster-sister's life. Kaeldra would rather not go. It's much too terriffying, much too dangerous. But Kaeldra knows that she's the only one who can do it. For she is the only one who can actually communicate with dragons. But little does Kaeldra know what she's getting into. She's about to begin a journey that will entwine her fate with that of three little draclings and one would-be dragonslayer. A journey the will become a struggle for life.

There is a story about Kara and dragons. When she was four, she came down with vermillion fever. Her parents, thinking there was no cure, left her in a cave to die. A month, later she walked back into her parents’ home as healthy as if she had never been sick. It is said that a mother dragon lived in that cave, and she nursed young Kara back to life. Now, eleven years later, the only reminder of Kara’s illness is a small scar on her cheek. Of her contact with the dragon, there is more. Her eyes, which once were blue, are now green. And she can call down birds, which many believe is a sign that she can also call down dragons, for the two are distant cousins. Only Kara has her doubts. How can a beast as huge and terrifying as a dragon be related to a sweet, gentle bird? But could this explain why the king has sent for her? Does he think she has power over dragons? For Kara, the answer to this question means life or death—not only for her, but for all the dragons.

Lyf has always been pampered, ever since she caught vermilion fever and drank dragon’s milk to cure it. The milk turned her eyes green—a sure sign that she could speak with dragons. But being able to communicate with dragons is not a coveted gift, not when the Queen’s forces are killing them for their hearts and imprisoning all who try to stop them. Now, the last of the dragon eggs are hatching, and the dragons and draclings are in greater danger than ever before. Their safety lies with a few dragon friends who bear the sign of the dove, like Lyf. But in order to save the dragons, Lyf will have to leave behind her life as a pampered child and accept a treacherous journey—one she may not survive.

The only small, popular book on the important subject of ancient calendars. The study of heavenly cycles is common to most ancient cultures. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Babylonians all tried to make sense of the year. But it fell to the later Mesoamerican Maya to create a series of calendars that could be cross referenced. In doing so, the Maya discovered many strange numerical harmonics. Their lunar calendar was extremely accurate-far more so than the Greek Metonic cycle; they tracked Venus to an accuracy of less than a day in five hundred years and their tables could have been used to predict eclipses seven hundred years in the future. This book will provide a much needed compact guide to the Mayan calendar systems as well as covering the essentials of calendar development throughout the world.

Every night, Shahrazad begins a story. And every morning, the Sultan lets her live another day -- providing the story is interesting enough to capture his attention. After almost one thousand nights, Shahrazad is running out of tales. And that is how Marjan's story begins.... It falls to Marjan to help Shahrazad find new stories -- ones the Sultan has never heard before. To do that, the girl is forced to undertake a dangerous and forbidden mission: sneak from the harem and travel the city, pulling tales from strangers and bringing them back to Shahrazad. But as she searches the city, a wonderful thing happens. From a quiet spinner of tales, Marjan suddenly becomes the center of a more surprising story than she ever could have imagined.

As the last of the dragon eggs, laid long ago, begin to hatch, Lyf becomes a reluctant friend who tries to save both the dragon mothers and their newly born children from their enemies.

In the city of the dead, a dreamer awakens.... Young Babak has a magnificent gift: He can dream the future. Mitra, his brave older sister, is sworn to protect him. For them to survive living on the streets, she must do whatever is necessary -- including using her brother's talent for profit. When Babak is asked to dream for a powerful Magus, he receives a mysterious vision of two stars dancing in the night. Determined to solve this prophetic riddle, the Magus takes the boy and his sister on an arduous journey across the desert. What they discover will change the world in a way that no dream could ever predict....

"Eleven-year-old Renzo must teach himself to blow glass with the help of a girl who has a mysterious connection to her falcon"--

The first time Eliza sees Wah Chung, he is squatting beside some rocks on the pathway to her island. Eliza's island is the one on which the lighthouse -- operated and maintained by her father -- stands, sending its beacon of safety to ships at sea. The pathway to the island is a treacherous one, engulfed by water when the tide is high, passable only when the tide is low and reveals the secret life of the sea on the rocks and in the pools that remain. Although Eliza is careful to avoid Wah Chung as he paints among the rocks (after all, he is a Chinaman), when a "sneaker wave" approaches the passage, it is Wah Chung who warns her and then rescues Eliza's goat, Parthenia, before both are swept away. It is a simple act of kindness, but one that causes Eliza to doubt many things. Are the Celestials, as the Chinese immigrants are called, such a threat to their small town? Are they really heathens, as her father claims? And what should she do when the townspeople conspire to expel these people forcibly? How will Eliza act, in the face of her father's strong beliefs and his duties as the lighthouse keeper, when Wah Chung comes to her for help in return?