SOLVED. YA Fantasy series. Follows 2 boys into adulthood. One is a prince who falls to "The Void" and takes the other one with him. Approx 2005 but it was from a public library. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[BinarySecond]

This was a series I read when I was a teenager, ball park is about 2005.

Well of DarknessMargaret WeisSovereign Stone series by by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

I recall the author having a name like "A B Surname" written a bit like JK Rowling I suppose.

The two main characters I remember are the prince and his play mate.

Playmate is the son of a handmaid of the Queen, this boy has a birthmark on his face which the Queen is convinced by the Mother is lucky and uses that to get him assigned as the Princes playmate. He might have been called Gareth, or a name that began with G. This detail is fuzzy

The Prince is spoilt and self centred; He treats his new "friend" very poorly and generally is unpleasant when using his royal authority.

I recall a relatively generic fantasy setting, kingdoms divided by race (human, elf, dwarf)

The human kingdom possesses a magical stone that can turn worthy people into magical knights. I recall them being turned to stone by the process then if they are worthy they return to normal but get magical armour and weapons.

Spoilers beyond this point.

The prince goes through the trials when he is old enough but is rejected. He passess all the trials of physical requirement but fails on character grounds. He doesn't like working in the hospital because he fears becoming sick.

The King decides to share the stone and power with the others kingdoms and splits the stone amongst them so they can all have knights. In splitting the stone a "Dagger of the void" is created which is used to create "Void Knights".

The Princes playmate becomes some kind of void mage and use of the magic causes all kinds of boils and sores to appear on his body.

The Prince starts some kind of war in the later books I believe, but can't recall any more details than that.

[SamSpayedPI]

BinarySecond:

Did you already solve this on your own? Well of Darkness by Margaret Weis?

[BinarySecond]

A friend helped me as I was telling him about trying to find this book series, I haven't the foggiest but he googled the heck out of it.