The dragons are extinct. None have been seen in a lifetime, and it is all to the good of the world that the soul-devouring demons are no more.
In a small village in the foothills, a devout girl named Silmavalien and her agnostic fiance, Noren, find two mysterious objects. When an albino dragon hatches in her room and Silmavalien's soul is bonded to the dragon's in a song of fire, her world is changed forever. Everything she has been taught is a lie, and everyone she knows is to be feared. Before she can marry Noren, she flees into the wilderness, where the challenge of winter in the mountains almost proves her and Minth's end.
Noren fears for Silmavalien's disappearance. When his object hatches the dragon Elninya, just outside the gates of the Oracle's city, Noren finds his answers, but questions why Silmavalien would not trust him. He half-heartedly tries to find her, while struggling to hide his identity and his growing dragon in kingdoms where to be discovered is to be burned alive. But his fear could turn him into the monster he fears.
No matter how far they run, neither Silmavalien nor Noren can escape the Nightmare that seeks to devour their souls and slay their dragons. But if they accept it, the Gift of the Volcano, born in fire and darkness, will be enough to win their battle.
Contains an exclusive short story and over 40 illustrations.
Return of the Dragonriders
Raina Nightingale has been writing high fantasy since she could read well enough to write her stories with the words she knew (the same time that she started devouring any fiction she could touch). She especially loves dragons, storms, mountains, stars, forests, volcanoes, a whole lot of other things, and characters who can make you feel what they do (up to a point). When she’s not learning and exploring either her fantasy worlds or this one, she enjoys playing with visual art, among other things. She will always believe that even in the darkest places kindness is stronger than hatred and that we will never be aware of all the magic in the world.
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