The Druid and the Dragon

Maeve is a dreamy young girl, one whose constant drifting off is always getting her in trouble with her stern and rather harsh mother. Getting lost in her head prevents Maeve from doing her chores properly and causes her to feel like a burden to her family; even her sister, Deirdre, gets fed up with her daydreaming. Maeve’s one reprieve is selling eggs in the village where she can talk to her one friend, Declan, the bardic apprentice from the Druid camp in the woods. One day Declan decides to take Maeve back to the Druid camp to meet Bradan, a seer. After meeting Bradan and making some other Druid friends, Maeve learns that she can be happy in her life, even if her mind is a wandering beast.

However, when Maeve overhears Bradan and Declan talking, she discovers that Declan only brought her to the camp under Bradan’s instructions. Feeling betrayed by her first friend and her mentor, Maeve is torn when Bradan offers to take Maeve on as an apprentice seer. The betrayal continues when her mother and father tell her she must go with Bradan and that she is no longer welcome in their home. She is also turned away by Deirdre and her husband. Utterly alone, Maeve runs to the woods and finds a cave in which to take shelter. It is here that Maeve meets the dragon Riasc Tiarna who cryptically and gruffly encourages her, telling her that she alone makes her decisions and she will be responsible for a great decision in the future.

After meeting Riasc Tiarna, Bradan finds Maeve and apologizes after Maeve tells him how he wronged her. Bradan is able to convince Maeve to be his apprentice, but partway through Maeve’s training, Bradan is summoned by King Redmond to a war council. Before reaching the king's castle, Bradan falls ill, and Maeve and Declan continue on alone. Maeve must use all her skills and learn to trust her intuition to interpret Redmond's dream and stop the king's traitorous wife and brother from destroying the kingdom.

Maeve's story is a coming-of-age tale that focuses on finding inner confidence after it has been harshly stripped away. Maeve has to learn to trust in herself and her abilities, something to which everyone can relate on some level, and the guidance Riasc Tiarna gives her is wonderful advice. Kristin Butcher has created a world grounded in Irish Celtic traditions, one that readers will find familiar and fantastical all at once. The first in a planned trilogy, The Druid and the Dragon provides an interesting set-up to Maeve's story and works as a self-contained story while leaving some unresolved plot threads that will bring readers back to the volumes to come.