M- must capture a king dragon, or die trying. War between the island states of Kattaka and Mazemoor has left no one unscathed. M--s nomadic people, the Ba-Suon, were driven from their homeland by the Kattakans. Those who remained were forced to live under the Kattakan yoke, to serve their greed for gold alongside the dragons with whom the Ba-Suon share an empathic connection. A decade later and under a fragile truce, M- returns home from her exile for an ancient, necessary rite: gathering a king dragon of the Crown Mountains to maintain balance in the wild country. But M--s act of compassion toward an imprisoned dragon and Lilley, a Kattakan veteran of the war, soon draws the ire of the imperialistic authorities. They order the unwelcome addition of an enigmatic Ba-Suon traitor named Raka to accompany M- and Lilley to the mountains. The journey is filled with dangers both within and without. As conflict threatens to reignite, the survival of the Ba-Suon people, their dragons, and the l
