“Dragons who trust me to fight by their side and have sent me as their personal emissary to the north.” He was increasingly aware that Esen was waiting outside with their packs, alone in a city bigger than either of them had ever seen. “There are dragons in the world,” Raif said, standing up.
“Tell me, do you have a certificate of sanity? Whilst Aliann welcomes all travelers, there is a fee for-” “Ah, dragons,” the chirurgeon said, his eyes lighting up with what could have been interest-although Raif was pretty certain by now that it was greed. “Not an Aliannese physician, I see,” the chirurgeon remarked, peering over his spectacles with disdain. Even arguing that he had spent three weeks on a ferry and would certainly be dead already if he were plague-ridden made no difference, and his certificate of health from the most experienced physician in the world was greeted with a little chuckle.
After that had come the quarantine doctor, which had just been a quick nod and coin for his traveling companion Esen, but had proven more complicated when Raif explained that he had come from Tiallat and even worse when he pointed out that he had already had the plague and recovered. First he had paid the ferry captain and then had to pay again to get their travel packs released from the hold. It had been a busy and rather expensive hour. THE FIRST time Raif drowned in Aliann was almost an hour after he stepped off the ferry. For nothing in the city of masks is what it seems, from the new friends Raif makes to the dragon he follows-or even himself. With the election of a new duke at stake, Raif struggles to make sense of the challenges he meets in Aliann: a conspiracy of nixies and pirates, selkie refugees in desperate need of a champion, a monster that devours souls, a flirtatious pirate prince, and a machine that could change the world. Now bound to Arden’s side despite his frustration, Raif follows the dragon to the rich and influential lagoon city of Aliann, chasing rumors of the Shadow that once cursed his homeland. Traveling north to wake the dragon Arden, he hopes he has finally found a leader worthy of his loyalty, but Arden turns out to be more of a frivolous annoyance than an almighty spirit lord.
Raif has survived them all, but now he finds himself in search of a new purpose. QSFer Amy Rae Durreson has a new MM fantasy book out:
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