Beads of Bone

What magic does the Library hold? Adopted at birth by a loving family of magic users, fifteen year old Ryn desperately wants to fit in, but the law is clear: only those with documented bloodlines use magic. If Ryn's birth parents remain unknown, she will be denied the use of magic along with the knowledge and training those ancestors could provide. When Ryn receives an unexpected invitation to search for her legacy in the closely guarded ancestral Library, she leaps at the chance. With its odd passageways and hidden treacherous rooms, the Library holds powerful knowledge, keys to ancient mysteries, and potentially, Ryn's heritage. To her dismay Ryn's quest is thwarted by the very tutor who committed to mentoring her. Time is short, and access to the Library will end with her tutor's departure. If Ryn can't find her heritage before she comes of age, her chance to become a magic user will disappear.

The Library is dying. Ryn is finally working in the Ancestral Library, a childhood dream and a way to find her birth parentage. But the magic of the Library is being sabotaged, allowing pests, water damage, and worse, while hostile Ancestor Houses are vying to move the books from the location they've occupied for a thousand years. Rumors of a secret society bent on sabotage, with only the words "Kill the roots, take the fruits," leads Ryn and her stepbrother Zo on a chase across Waatch and the ancestor Islands. Three items are a danger to the Library: a rock, and sword, and a branch. Though Ryn has hated being an Ordinary her whole life, it seems the Ordinaries of Waatch, disdained by the Ancestor descendants, might hold the true key to the Library. They might be the only way for Ryn to find the saboteur and items, and save the Library along with any hope of finding her birth family. Discover the fate of the Library in the second book of Beads of Bone.

The Ancestors' magic is not what it seems . . . Ryn and Zo saved the Library from immediate destruction, only to put off the inevitable. It's just a matter of time until Zmej comes back to finish the job. Meanwhile, Zo tries to hide the loss of his Healing Magic, while Ryn fights for her rights as an Ordinary. To make things worse, the Ancestor elite are busy evicting them from the Library and their homes. When Ryn finally discovers a clue to her adoptive father's location, it's a race to get to him before Zmej does. Her father has vital information about magic, the Ancestors, how the Library works, and what Ryn truly is. But between the race to save the Library and searching for a cure for Zo, she might just discover more than she ever thought was possible about her biological mother and father, magic, and the fate of the Heart Tree.