Watercolor panorama of Vaelthorne: a golden star shattering in a night sky, its four shards falling toward a forest, a lake with a sunken library, floating sky islands, and a volcanic forge, watched by four young heroes

An illustrated chapter-book trilogy

The Shattered Star
of Vaelthorne

When the Star fell and broke into four shards, four friends set out across four lands to find them — and learned that the bravest way to face a dragon is to befriend him.

Written by Marcus Draper

3Books
392Pages
60Chapters
4Lands & Shards
80+Illustrations
⬇ Start with Book One — Free PDF Browse all three books

The story

One fallen star. Four shards. Four friends.

Every year, Millbrook celebrates the Festival of Falling Stars. This year, the Star itself fell.

On festival night, the great Star of Vaelthorne shattered in the sky — and its four shards scattered to the four corners of the land: Roots to Emberwood Vale, Tides and Winds to a drowned library and islands in the sky, and Embers to a forge deep inside a mountain of fire.

Kael Thorn, Mira Solen, Tam Reed, and Sera Vayne were just four kids at a festival. Then the shards chose them. Their journey takes them through enchanted forests, markets where bottled lake-light and sky salvage change hands, a library beneath a lake, and pirate-haunted skies — finding treasures, trading in towns, and befriending the very creatures everyone else fears.

Because something is waiting at the end of the road: Vaelgorath, the Hollow Star Dragon — and mending the Star will take more than courage. It will take kindness.

Download the trilogy

The three books

Each book is a complete, free PDF in standard 6 × 9″ book size — a watercolor illustration before every chapter, action scenes throughout, and an Expedition Inventory of everything the heroes found, kept, and sold along the way.

Book One cover art: Kael, Mira, Tam and Sera gazing up at the glowing green Shard of Roots entwined in vines, with Antor the stag and Bramble the treant sapling in Emberwood Vale Book One
🌿 Shard of Roots Emberwood Vale 134 pages · 20 chapters

The First Shard

The Festival of Falling Stars · Millbrook · Emberwood Vale

It starts with small quests — a hunt for a lost brass cog, a jar of ember-honey, a star-pebble sold at Market Day for nineteen silver acorns. Then the Star falls over the Festival of Falling Stars, and four friends who have only just met follow its first shard into Emberwood Vale.

There they befriend Bramble, a treant sapling no taller than a stool, and stand before Antor the great stag at the Heart Tree. To win the Shard of Roots they will need everything in their packs — a silver key, mooncap mushrooms, a star-metal arrowhead — and the courage to say the true thing out loud. And on the last page, a bard named Seren appears, singing a song that isn't finished yet…

Inside this book
  • 27 watercolor illustrations, including a full map of Vaelthorne
  • Opening quests, town trading, and a closing Dawn Market
  • Back matter: Expedition Inventory (items & prices) + a sneak-peek chapter of Book Two
⬇ Download Book One (PDF) Start the trilogy here.
Book Two cover art: the four friends and Pearl the white cat in a rowboat approaching the Drowned Archive rising from the lake, with Nerissa the tide serpent, the glowing blue Shard of Tides, floating sky islands and Skye the griffon above Book Two
🌊 Shard of Tides 🪶 Shard of Winds 127 pages · 20 chapters

The Lake That Keeps a Library

The Drowned Archive of Thaldris · The Skybound Isles of Zephyra

Ferryman Corin takes them across the lake — for the price of a token saved from Book One — and the silver key opens a library that drowned a hundred years ago and never stopped lending books. With Pearl the Archive Cat as their guide, the friends hunt a stolen Book of Tides, outwit the Inkfin Stalker on the Drowning Stair, and befriend Nerissa the Tide Serpent. The Shard of Tides is won from the Sunken Librarian Prime — at the price of a true story Mira has never told anyone.

Then it's up: through the Brinemarket's bottled lake-light and Bellhaven's sky-market, across the Bridge of Bells to the Skybound Isles — a lost flock, a rescued Storm Roc chick, Captain Vex and his sky-pirates, Skye the griffon — and the Shard of Winds from Aurelith herself. All while Vaelgorath's written orders reveal exactly what he is planning.

Inside this book
  • 28 illustrations — a picture before every chapter, plus 5 action plates
  • Two lands, two shards, and two markets: Brinemarket & Bellhaven
  • Back matter: Expedition Inventory Book Two, Pearl's Catalogue, Sera's Notebook + a sneak-peek chapter of Book Three
⬇ Download Book Two (PDF) Two shards in one adventure.
Book Three cover art: Vaelgorath the star dragon with a glowing mended star in his chest, in the Cindervault Forge, surrounded by the four friends and their allies — Antor, Bramble, Nerissa and Skye — with the red Shard of Embers floating between them Book Three
🔥 Shard of Embers The Finale 131 pages · 20 chapters

The Star, Mended

The Cindervault Forge · The finale against Vaelgorath

South through Ashford's trading stalls and across the Glass Desert — rescuing Pip the coal sprite on the way — to the Cindervault Forge, where Kharzul waits at his star-shaped anvil. The Great Bellows must be mended, a Slag Golem faced, and the Trial of Embers passed. There, the last shard is not taken. It is asked for — and when all four shards sing together, Vaelgorath wakes.

Every friend returns for the ending: Bramble and Antor, Pearl, Nerissa bringing the rain, Skye, Aurelith, the Zephyr Hound, and the Cloud Shepherd. In three phases — the Hollow Roar, the Starless Night, and the Mending — the friends give up something precious each, restore the Star in the dragon's chest, and give him a new name: Vael, the Mended. The trilogy closes where it began, under a whole sky, at a final Festival of Falling Stars.

Inside this book
  • 27 illustrations, and the whole company of allies on the page together
  • The three-phase finale and the redemption ending
  • Back matter: Expedition Inventory Book Three, Seren's Finished Song in full, and a Letter from Vael
⬇ Download Book Three (PDF) The final book of the trilogy.

All three are also gathered in one volume as The Shattered Star of Vaelthorne: The Complete Trilogy.

The company

Four heroes — and the friends they make

In Vaelthorne, the strongest thing a hero carries isn't a sword. It's a friendship.

The Archer

Kael Thorn

Quick with a bow and quicker to volunteer. Finds the star-metal arrowhead — and learns when not to shoot.

The Keeper

Mira Solen

Carrier of the Wayfarer's pack, where every found thing ends up. Her untold true story is the price of the Tides shard.

The Musician

Tam Reed

Plays the reed flute the way other people talk. More than one frightened creature has calmed down to Tam's music.

The Note-Taker

Sera Vayne

Writes everything down — prices, promises, and the exact words of a dragon. Her notebook becomes part of the legend.

First Friend · Book One

Bramble

A treant sapling, small and brave, befriended in Emberwood Vale — and the first to answer when the final call goes out.

Guardian · Book One

Antor the Stag

Ancient guardian of the Heart Tree. He does not give the Shard of Roots to the strong — he gives it to the honest.

Guide · Book Two

Pearl the Archive Cat

Lives in the Drowned Archive, knows every shelf, and keeps a catalogue of her own. Extremely professional. Mostly.

The Dragon · Book Three

Vaelgorath → Vael

The Hollow Star Dragon, who stole the Star's light because his own had gone out. The ending he gets is the heart of the whole trilogy.

Where to begin

Read them in order

The packs, keys, and friendships carry over from book to book — a token spent in Book Two was earned in Book One.

The First Shard

Meet the four at the Festival of Falling Stars and win the Shard of Roots in Emberwood Vale.

Download

The Lake That Keeps a Library

Cross the lake to the Drowned Archive, then climb to the Skybound Isles — Tides and Winds.

Download

The Star, Mended

Enter the Cindervault Forge for the Shard of Embers, then face Vaelgorath — and mend the Star.

Download

About the editions

FormatPDF, standard 6 × 9″ book size — reads on any device, prints at book size
SeriesThe Shattered Star of Vaelthorne — a complete trilogy, also gathered as The Complete Trilogy in one volume
Length392 pages · 60 chapters · about 57,000 words of story
ArtWatercolor illustration before every chapter, plus mid-chapter action scenes and a map of Vaelthorne
In every bookQuests, treasures found and traded in towns, befriended creatures — and an Expedition Inventory in the back
PriceFree — download and read

About the author

Marcus Draper writes the world of Vaelthorne — the same world as his adventure campaign, card games, and web games at deskatur.com, where four heroes, four shards, and one hollow-hearted dragon first came to life.

The trilogy was written to be read aloud and read again: chapters that end on a hook, friends who solve problems by being kind and clever, and a dragon whose story doesn't end the way dragon stories usually do.

“The bravest way to face a dragon is to befriend him.”

Begin the journey

The Star is waiting to be mended

Download Book One free and meet Kael, Mira, Tam, and Sera at the Festival of Falling Stars — the night everything fell, and everything began.

⬇ Book One — The First Shard Book Two Book Three