Fire Mother

With each devastating natural disaster, a dragon is born.

This is a simple fact, a mere association of two events. And yet, it has bred more hatred and strife than any other.

After the Yesugei war, a dark age for mankind and dragon alike, the last dragon riders—an ancient caste of people once rumoured to keep the balance in the natural order—were wiped off the face of the earth. Where man and dragon were once symbiotic, unified in a time of peace, now lies a rift between humankind and the natural elements.

Centuries later, the fate of both dragon- and humankind hangs in the balance. More and more natural disasters are beginning to ravage the earth with a divine vengeance, threatening the livelihood of the people. Among the choleric rumbling of the earth, rumours of another war glimmering on the horizon sparks a new dark age.

Khaliun Atkiray has not only trained to become a warrior since she was a child, but to someday rule in place of her father, the Great Conqueror Atkiray,  Emperor of Anutuya. But the Empress has other plans for her eldest daughter. When a betrothal for the sake of a strategic alliance is thrust upon Khaliun, her first instinct is to run. On her wedding day, Khaliun flees north, abandoning her duty, her younger sisters, her beloved country, and her betrothed at the altar.

When a chance encounter brings Khaliun to save Khaltmaa, a female dragon whose nest was under attack by dragon hunters in the Border Woods, it's a shot at saving herself from a fate worse than death. Khaltmaa is a Furyborn, a species of dragon risen from the ashes of a blazing wildfire. And she has chosen Khaliun as her rider.

By some turn of fate, Khaliun meets Aleksander Kalashnik, a disgraced dragon-slayer from Vyara. Where in Anutuya, dragons are sacred, protected by divine law, in Vyara, dragons are hunted and killed out of fear. In the same vein, Anutuya and Vyara have a long history of violent strife, and the fragile armistice between both powerful nations is on the verge of shattering.

When Anutuya is overthrown by Vyaran forces, Khaliun's world is destroyed. Now under King Lothar's rule, dragons are no longer protected in Anutuya. Instead, a law has been passed to purge the land of its dragons. A new dark age is on the horizon.

Aided by two other unexpected allies—Liuna, a fisherman's daughter living in a colonised settlement, treated like a social pariah for the colour of her skin and the ways of her people; and Abbas, a blacksmith, a child of immigrants and an immigrant himself, who has never belonged anywhere—they must gather their own army of dragons and riders, setting aside their differences, and take back what they've lost.

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ATLAS