The Ballad of Falling Dragons Summary: A Blood-Bound Epic

The story opens in the neutral city of Bothaim. Raeve has come to kill a bounty hunter named Rekk Zharos, a man who once captured and tortured her dragon, Líri.

She succeeds, decapitating him and feeding his body to a soul-eating water beast called an anthe.

In the same city, Kaan Vaegor watches his alchemist, Roan, stand trial for stealing a sacred book. The trial is a sham, and the Tri-Council sentences Roan to death by fire-lashing and anthe feeding.

Kaan refuses to accept this. He rows into the underground lake to rescue his friend.

The anthe attacks. Raeve, seeing Kaan in danger, removes an iron ring that suppresses her magic. She unleashes the goddess Clode to push the boats to shore and commands the water language of Rayne to hold back the beast. The effort nearly kills her, but Kaan drags her from the water.

The group escapes Bothaim and flees to Beluhn, a village ruled by Kaan’s pregnant aunt, Siharna.

In Beluhn, Raeve bonds with her Moonplume dragon, Líri. Kaan gives her custom riding leathers lined with protective scales and etched with warming runes.

But Raeve is hiding a secret. She is bound by a blood bind controlled by Sereme, a leader of the rebel group Fíur du Ath.

Sereme uses the bind to torture Raeve and force her to accept assassination contracts. The latest order: travel to Bhoggith and kill a silver-haired, silver-eyed fae hiding behind yellow double doors.

The target is not a fae at all. It is a nine-phase-old child named Ahvi, the only person who can read the Book of Voyd. Raeve refuses to kill him.

Ahvi, a powerful Mindweft, senses the blood bind and offers to dissolve it. But the ritual must happen at the exact mineshaft south of Gore where the bind was created.

Meanwhile, Kaan’s younger sister Veya is captured by Kaan’s exiled half-brother, Arkyn Vaegor. Arkyn, also known as the Scavenger King and secretly The Elding, runs an under-mountain fortress called The Flourish. He has also captured Princess Kyzari of The Shade.

Kyzari is the daughter of Kaan and Elluin Neván, though Kaan has been lied to and believes she is his brother Tyroth’s child. Arkyn beats Kyzari and subjects both her and Veya to brutal mind-rifling.

Veya smuggles Elluin’s diary to Kyzari, and the girl learns the truth about her mother’s love for Kaan and her family’s poisoning.

Kaan, unaware of his sister and daughter’s captivity, travels with Raeve to Bhoggith. They find Ahvi, fight off a contingent of Fade soldiers, and escape to the mineshaft near Gore.

There, Ahvi performs the blood-bind-breaking ritual. Raeve must be stripped to her weakest state. Her old wounds reopen, her skin turns translucent, and her heart nearly stops.

She places her hand on the Book of Voyd, whispers “I do,” and the bind shatters in a burst of glacial light.

The victory is short-lived. Sereme and thirty masked Fade soldiers emerge from invisibility. Sereme reveals that The Elding is Arkyn Vaegor and displays Kaan’s sister’s bloodstone beads as proof.

To protect Raeve and Ahvi, Kaan surrenders. He drinks a potion that cuts his connection to his dragon, Rygun, and is knocked unconscious.

The captives are taken to Arkyn’s stronghold. Arkyn hosts a feast and forces Raeve to sit beside him.

He reveals his plan: he has been using Raeve to eliminate political threats for phases, and now he has the Burn King chained and an army ready to seize the bronze throne.

He also reads Elluin’s diary aloud, revealing to Kaan that Kyzari is his biological daughter. To break Kaan completely, Arkyn orders Raeve to execute him in the Pits of Khindard.

In the arena, Raeve enters wearing silver armor and a helmet, her eyes black, wings of white-hot fire streaming from her back. Kaan drops his sword. He will not fight her.

Raeve whispers that he must fight his weapon, not her. She kisses him, tastes of embers, and then turns to Arkyn’s balcony.

She summons twin volcanic apparitions of Ignos and Bulder, gods of fire and ground, and launches a devastating assault that crumbles the platform with Arkyn on it.

Rygun smashes through the runed ceiling, and Kaan mounts his dragon to pursue Arkyn, who flees on his Elding Bird. Kaan corners him on the Ergor Plains and beats him to death with his bare fists, decapitating the body.

The release of elemental energy triggers the moonfalls. Moons wobble and scream through the sky, crashing into the plains. Uno, a brave pet miskunn, uses stolen keys to rescue Veya and Kyzari from their collapsing cells.

Kyzari is near death, but the God of Aether, Caelis, appears and heals her completely.

In the epilogue, Raeve sits beside an unconscious Kaan in an underground bunker. Kyzari sleeps nearby. Raeve finally dives into her internal lake and reclaims her memories as Elluin Neván.