The Golden Vial (Legends of the Realm #3) by Thomas Locke.

​Dally is a young orphan working as a servant in the mayor of Honor’s home. After the fire that claimed the lives of her family, the mayor opened his home to her. Despite being a servant, Dally enjoys spending time with the mayor’s dog and her pups. They have developed a special bond and she worries about the day that she will be parted from them.
Once Dally develops the telepathic ability to communicate with the puppies and Queen Shona, the unofficial queen of realm, she helps Queen Shona and her army arrive and defeat the mysterious creatures living in the forest outside Honor.
Now the realm is suffering from a severe and mysterious illness. Hyam, the hero who defeated the crimson mage during the battle of Emporis, is one of many suffering from this illness, with no known cure. With the realm under attack, Dally may be their only hope because Dally possesses a unique magic that may be the only way to protect the realm.
I have enjoyed this series since the first novel, however, this third installment threw me for a whirl.
Hyam is originally from Honor, the same small town that Dally lives in. Returning to Honor, therefore, was not a very big surprise. Dally is a very unique and intriguing character, even with all of the other characters in this novel. Unlike many of the other characters in this novel, Dally is an enigma, possessing a power unlike any other and with no idea as to where it came from.
I was surprised to find that Hyam was a minor character in this installment while in the other two novels he was a main character. Not only was he a minor character, but he was hardly in the novel at all. Other characters that have held an important role in the previous novels were minor characters now.
The plot line was very interesting, following the sudden adventures of the young Dally and those trying to save the realm. I found the plot line to be scintillating, however, it was almost as though a whole novel was missing between “The Merchant of Alyss” and this novel.
 I hope that this is not the final installment in this riveting series because I have many unanswered questions.
I would give this novel three and a half out of five stars and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first two novels.
I won my copy of this novel from LibraryThing.com and have been granted permission from the publishers at Revell to use an image of the cover artwork above. 

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