Triplets separated at birth unite to fulfill an ancient prophecy and defeat the Dark One in this YA fantasy adventure.

After Queen Sarah of Castle Hartwood gives birth to twins, King Frederic is happy that the girl looks just like her mother. But the boy is a dead ringer for the king’s adviser, Wizard Fangal, who disappears with the baby. Neither man knows that the dying queen delivered a third infant, a red-haired boy spirited away by her midwife. Fifteen years later, the scattered siblings live very different lives, although all have magical powers, some still latent. Hannah is a princess; Titan is Fangal’s apprentice; and Drake is a shepherd and unwitting adoptee. When Frederic’s rival, King Fisher, proposes that Hannah marry one of his three sons, the courtship turns into a kidnapping and leaves the kingdoms on the brink of war. With the dragon Kaylox—the legendary White Wyrm—awakening, fate brings the triplets together as part of an ancient prophecy: “Seek the wizard and find the key. Beware. Miracles and mayhem come in threes.” Together, they must help armies defeat the Dark One, a Black Dragon, before he escapes his prison and unleashes destruction. Grode sets his first fantasy novel in a familiar medieval European world, although diction sometimes clashes: “Okay”; “the guy with the armor.” That said, the triplet heroes provide an original spin, and the magic is imaginative. A shape-shifter, for example, must slice off some of his own skin and painfully graft it with a patch of animal hide, then tattoo a sigil. Complex plotlines and character development sometimes meander, but they mesh well in the climactic confrontation.

An involving sword-and-sorcery story with fresh, well-realized ideas.