The Fire Dragon

The Fire Dragon
Katharine Kerr

Book eleven of the celebrated Deverry series, an epic fantasy rooted in Celtic mythology that intricately interweaves human and elven history over several hundred years.The Fire Dragon tells two separate stories: one set in the “present” of 1117, and one set in the past, the era of the Civil Wars. In the present, Raena’s trouble-making in Cerr Cawnen leads to terrible death and destruction but may ultimately succeed in offering the final working-out of Rhodry’s Wyrd. In the past, Nevyn and Lilli attempt to solve the riddle of the curse tablet, but the price will be high.In this, the eleventh volume in the Deverry cycle and third of the Dragon Mage series, storylines begun in Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood, A Time of Exile and The Black Raven – both the ‘present’ of 1117 and the past – will reach their triumphant and spellbinding conclusion. But there will be more Deverry books to unravel the situation that climaxes The Fire Dragon…

KATHARINE KERR

THE FIRE DRAGON

Book Three of The Dragon Mage

COPYRIGHT (#)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperVoyager

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1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2000

Copyright © Katharine Kerr 2000

Katharine Kerr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006482611

Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007375387

Version: 2017-05-02

DEDICATION (#)

For my grandfather,

John Brahtin

He gave me my social conscience

CONTENTS

Cover (#uf8ab7d50-1FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)

Title Page (#uf8ab7d50-2FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)

Copyright (#)

Dedication (#)

Author's Note

Part One (#)

Part Two (#)

Epilogue (#)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendices (#)

Glossary (#)

Acknowledgements (#)

About the Author (#)

Also by the Author (#)

About the Publisher (#)

AUTHOR’S NOTE (#uf8ab7d50-7FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)

It occurs to me that readers might find it helpful to know something about the overall structure of the Deverry series. From the beginning of this rather large enterprise, I have had an actual ending in mind, a set of events that should wrap up all the books in a dramatic conclusion. It’s merely taken me much longer to get there than I ever thought it would.

If you think of Deverry as a stage play, the sets of books make up its acts. Act One consists of the Deverry books proper, that is, Daggerspell, Darkspell, Dawnspell, and Dragonspell. The ‘Westlands’ books, A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, and A Time of Justice, make up Act Two, while Act Three will unfold in the current quartet, ‘The Dragon Mage,’ that is, The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, and its ‘sister’, The Fire Dragon. The Gold Falcon will bring the sequence to its end at last.

As for the way that the series alternates between past and present lives, think of the structure of a line of Celtic interlace, some examples of which have decorated the various books in this set. Although each knot appears to be a separate figure, when you look closely you can see that they are actually formed from one continuous line. Similarly, this line weaves over and under itself to form the figures. A small section of line seems to run over or under another line to form a knot.

The past incarnations of the characters in this book and their present tense story really are one continuous line, but this line interweaves to form the individual volumes. Eventually – soon, I hope – the pattern will complete itself, and you will be able to see that the set of books forms a circle of knots.

Katharine Kerr

PART ONE (#)

Deverry Spring, 850

The year 850. The gods saw fit to give our prince the victory, but never had we dreamt how high a price they would set for it.