A rebellious young warrior and her renegade male companions are charged with the enormous task of confronting a hidden, ancient evil that threatens the fate of their home in Jayel Gibson's young adult fantasy novel, "The Wrekening." The second novel in Gibson's "Ancient Mirrors" series, "The Wrekening" transports readers back to the magical kingdom of Ædracmoræ-home to dragons, men, magic and machines-where Yávië reigns as the Dragon Queen. The Queen's estranged niece, Cwen, is a rebellious, confident and stubborn young warrior-the prefect candidate for a quest to save Ædracmoræ from unspeakable evil.

The Wrekening: An Ancient Mirrors Tale

“The Wrekening” begins as the Feie named Brengven is searching for a meal and stumbles upon a cavern full of demonic stone soldiers.  Opening a rift, he hurries to the fortress of the House of Aaradan where Yavie, the Dragon Queen, and her husband Sorel live with Yavie’s Guardians.  Hearing the news of the discovery of the army and using the knowledge of the Ancient wizard, Grumblton, they decide that something must be done to collect and destroy the Wreken Shards, the heart shards of the Wreken Wyrms, or stubstrata dragons.  Knowing that sending guardians would draw too much attention, they call upon the help of Nall and Naere’s estranged daughter, Cwen and her friend Talin.  At first they refuse, but Brengven, who was sent to convince them, finally succeeds after Caen, who has been good-naturedly stalking Cwen, gets shot by her.  The Feie uses Caen, who is somewhat of a rogue, to convince her by saying that he will take Caen on the quest and that she is too weak to complete the quest.  In the end, all three of them accompany Brengven.  Several days later, they are traveling through Spire Canyon when Cwen is captured by the Thralax, an intelligent, gorilla-like monster.  Just as Cwen is escaping on her own, Caen and Talin come to rescue her and nearly kill the Thralax.  Cwen saves it by way of a blood oath, and it is forever sworn to protect her.  She steals its vast wealth and continues towards the first of the 13 Wreken Shards.  After Cwen and her group have collected the first and several other Wreken Shards, they get news that one town has already been attacked by a dark army set free from an underground cavern by an evil enchantress.  When Nall comes to tell them to “speed up”, he is nearly killed by Cwen, but nevertheless, they hasten in their task as more armies are awakened and more towns are destroyed.  As Caen tries to worm his way into Cwen’s heart, Klaed, the son of a councilman who like Cwen and Talin refused to be guardians, shows up and vies for Cwen’s affections.  Can Cwen and her friends recover and destroy all the Wreken Shards before Aedracmorae is destroyed? 

In this second book of the Ancient Mirror series, Jayel Gibson not only writes well, but also draws the reader in to this mesmerizing story.  “The Wrekening” is a book for teens that would enjoy reading about fantasy, dragons and dark armies.