SOLVED. Fantasy-a young male has to get a sword from a tower by swimming underwater; the sword is engraved with a monster's name. [s]

[Donald]

Read sometime in the past few years, but I don't know how old the book is.


BIG SPOILERS BELOW:

At the end of the first book, the main character has to swim underwater to get into a magically sealed tower to get a blade to kill a magically created creature, which can fly. Each of the magical creatures created has a blade with their name inscribed on it to control it. The beast was, as I recall, supposed to be non-sentient, but this one clearly is sentient. Three other characters are related to one another and good friends with the main character: two brothers and a female that I think is a cousin. They all end up at this remote village because of a kingdom-wide contest, which is rigged so that some pawn will be dubbed the heir or so-and-so and then will be used to conquer a bunch of territory. However, the beast gets loose and sets the village on fire, burning it to the ground. He also captures the female. One of the two brothers is killed. Someone gets badly burned in the keep and also dies. The beasts were created by an enemy to humans. The main character has some of his blood in him, or he would not have been able to enter the tower. The enemy resides across the river, as per the treaty, but their old tower resides in human territory. The impression I have of the enemy race is elf-like. That's all I can remember. TIA.

[Conal]

Donald wrote: "Read sometime in the past few years, but I don't know how old the book is.


BIG SPOILERS BELOW:

At the end of the first book, the main character has to swim underwater to get into a magically sea..."

My guess would be:

Theft of Swords

This is the consolidation of two previous novels by Michael J Sullivan:

The Crown Conspiracy
Avempartha

[Donald]

Yes! Thank you! That's the one!