The Rage of Dragons

The Rage of Dragons
Evan Winter
The Burning #1

The Rage of Dragons Summary

Queen Taifa lands her people, The Chosen, on foreign shores fleeing their homeland of Osonte due to a mysterious enemy called The Cull. Her forces, led by her champion/lover Tsiory, attack the hostile natives. The Chosen have multiple magical abilities among their women, they can knock enemies unconscious, “enrage” certain men (making them bigger, stronger, etc.), and they can call dragons (called Guardians). They are hesitant to call dragons at first because that may summon the Cull, but after Tsiory is killed Queen Taifa unleashes dragon fire on the people.

200 years later, the Chosen have established themselves in the land, but there is still an ongoing war with the Hedeni, who were forced back into The Curse. Tau Tafari, a high Common, practices sparring with his friend Jabari Onai, a Petty Noble. They are taught by Aren Solarin, Tau’s father and captain of the local guard. Jabari is bigger and stronger than Tau due to his Noble blood.

They hear about a Hedeni raid on a nearby village, Daba, and go to help. Tau kills a Hedeni woman and is upset and does not want to be a soldier. Jabari’s older brother, Lekan, (Set to inherit the rule of their fief), tries to force himself on a young woman and when caught, Aren is forced to exile the Common girl and her family because of privilege. Tau and Jabari are training for their testing, where the fates of young men are decided. The best become soldiers, and the commons who fail become Drudge, basically slaves to the Nobles. Nobles test to join the Indlovu, an elite fighting force that will train for 3 cycles before seeing combat, whereas Commons join the Ihashe, who only train for a single cycle and are the expendable front line fighters. Tau also begins a relationship with Zuri, a young girl in the village he likes.

The testing arrives and Lekan forces Tau to warm up with a young Noble from another family. As they spar, the Noble swings his sharpened sword for Tau’s neck, so Tau knocks him to the ground. Abasi Odili, leader of the Guardian Council (Basically the highest ranking Royal Noble, just under the Queen), sees this and decides all Nobles here must not be worthy and decides to cancel the test and leave. Laken blames Tau, and Tau gets angry and insults Laken. Odili takes offense to a Common speaking up to a Noble and tells one of his Indlovu, Kellan Okar, to kill Tau. Tau’s father Aren takes his place. Kelland cuts off his hand to try to spare his life but Abasi Odili just tells his bodyguard, Dejen, to finish it. Aren is dead and Tau is anguished. The testing is still cancelled as Odili makes all the judges leave. Jabari is able to save Tau from Lekan’s wrath by exiling him from their town, and the soldiers (loyal to his father), make sure Tau does not do anything stupid.

Back in Kerem, Tau finds Zuri and learns she tested as a Gifted, the women who can use magic. This elevates her to just about as high in the caste system as you can get. Zuri is horrified when hearing what happens but still cares for Tau. Tau sneaks into the keep and kills Lekan, although Lekan gives him a long scar on his cheek before Tau kills him. Jabari plans to head for the Northern Testing, and Tau heads to Kigambe to test to join the Ihashe there. His plan is to get into the Ihashe, kill Kellan Okar in training, then as a member of the military he can challenge anyone to a blood duel, so he will challenge Abasi Odili and kill his bodyguard and him. All he wants is revenge.

At the testing, he barely wins his first fight via disqualification, and then wins a few more. He is exhausted and gets matched up against a huge man, Uduak. To make the Ihashe you have to survive until day 3 or win 10 fights. It is only day 2 and Tau is not close to 10 wins yet. Uduak beats him over and over, but Tau refuses to yield. He manages to tie the point score by getting a touch on Uduak right before the time is called. Uduak is furious and breaks Tau’s wrist then knocks him unconscious with a kick. Tau wakes up in an infirmary tent and learns he was accepted into the Ihashe, a member of scale Jayyed. Jayyed is famous for being the only Common ever to be on the Guardian Council.

Tau begins to train with his left hand since his right wrist is still badly broken. Some notable members of Scale Jayyed are Aren, second in command to Jayyed who trains them most days, and then Uduak and Hadith. Tau is the smallest member of the scale but trains incredibly hard for longer than anyone else and slowly improves to become one of their best swordsmen. They fight training battles against some other scales and crush them. Tau’s wrist eventually heals and he discovers in a practice fight he can use two swords. As he develops this skill he becomes a dominant fighter, besting even Uduak with ease.

The Ihashe scales will fight Indlovu scales a few times a year. The goal is to train the Indlovu to be prepared for the superior numbers of the Hedeni on the battlefield, and the Ihashe never win the engagements, but Tau and Jayyed are determined to change that. In their first match, the 54 members of the scale are fighting 18 Indlovu initiates and one Enervator, a magic user who can send out a wave that knocks everyone it hits unconscious. In the fight Tau gets blasted, and those hit are sent to Isihogo, the demon plains. While there they are attacked by demons, and while the wounds are not real, the mental anguish and pain felt carry back over, leaving everyone disoriented and easy to kill. Tau distracts some demons in Isihogo to save one of his squad, and when he gets out of Isihogo he gets close enough to the Enervator to kick her out of the scrimmage. Scale Jayyed ends up winning, which is very exciting for them. While celebrating in the city Tau sees Zuri and goes to talk to her. She teaches him how to enter Isihogo on his own, and he learns the demons can only hurt you if you draw energy from there. That is how magic is done, the people who can use magic actually have the ability to hide themselves from the demons while they draw power.

Tau continues training, Scale Jayyed wins another skirmish against some Indlovu, and Nobles are starting to get upset, seeing a group of Commons win. Tau meets with Zuri again but this time some Nobles threaten Tau for talking to a gifted and he is already angry so he attacks them and knocks them out. Then Kellan Okar shows up and Tau loses it, attacking him. But Kellan is better and easily holds him off. Jayyed grabs him and they flee the city while tempers cool. Tau realizes he need to get better. A fact about being in Isihogo is that 50 breaths pass there for every 1 in Uhmlaba (The real world). Since Tau needs more time to train he decides to fight in Isihogo every night. He is repeatedly killed by demons and at first fears and hates it but grows to love and feel he deserves the pain and torture. This extra time turns him from a great fighter into someone untouchable, but it takes a toll. He begins to see demons everywhere and clearly has PTSD. Zuri shows up at their training place and she and Tau kiss and do even more stuff. He feels at peace with her.

Abasi Odili briefly shows up and summons Jayyed to a meeting. Tau follows hoping to kill him, but instead stumbles on a meeting with the Hedeni. The Chosen are trying to pursue peace. A warlord of the Hedeni (Xideen, they call themselves), gives his son to marry the new, young Queen, Tsiora. In exchange Jayyed’s daughter, a powerful mage, is given to the Hedeni to train them. Tau is horrified and keeps this meeting a secret.

Scale Jayyed qualifies for the Queen’s Melee, the biggest marshall event of the year and they are the first Ihashe to qualify in a long time. This is Tau’s goal, since he may get a chance to fight and kill Kellan Okar. They win round 1, and in round 2 Tau duels the opponents leader and wins. Round 3 they fight Kellan’s squad and Tau loses it for his team to get a chance to fight Kellan. He is better and almost kills him but more of Kellan’s Indlovu show up and defend him. Scale Jayyed is hiding out to avoid the Nobles' anger at their success, when alarms start going. The Hedeni are attacking. Scale Jayyed goes to fight, and they see the Hedeni are here in force and greatly outnumber them. Tau goes to save Zuri, who is fighting with Kellan’s squad. They save her and Kellan, but Jayyed dies.

Back at Citadel City, they all figure out that Abasi Odili is leading a coup by the Nobles. He does not want to make peace since that would break up the caste system. He plans to kill Queen Tsiora and make her younger sister a puppet. The rest of Kellan and Tau’s scales with Zuri go to save the queen. They reach her rooms and Tau kills Dejen (Odili’s bodyguard). He has a chance to chase down Odili but chooses to save Jabari instead. The Queen gathers everyone and takes them to the walls to muster her forces. Zuri had been working to summon a dragon and uses it to kill most of Odili’s men, but he escapes in the chaos. Zuri had to use too much power in Isihogo, and is going to die so Tau tries to save her, but a demon attacks him. Queen Tsiora is secretly powerful at hiding herself, and saves Zuri and Tau, but the dragon is now free. It burns most of Tau’s remaining scale and Jabari is badly hurt, then it incinerates Zuri while Tau can do nothing. He is heartbroken. The Hedeni army shows up. The Queen offers them the warlord's son, Kana, in exchange for 30 days of peace. They agree.

Queen Tsiora asks Tau to be her new Champion. Abasi Odili has taken many Royal Nobles and is camped in Palm City with the queen’s sister. She needs to first stop him then figure out how to handle the vengeful Hedeni. Jamillah, the magic woman they sent to “train them”, instead summoned a dragon that killed a huge number of them. Tsiora give Tau 2 dragon scale swords, and he takes them and agrees to help.