Draconas had his back to her. She’d been spying on him from the moment he’d entered the abandoned building. He was here to set a trap for the dragon Grald, the master of Dragonkeep. Grald, disguised in his own stolen human body, was heading this direction.

Grald and Anora were in contact, the colors of their minds blending, though not very harmoniously. Anora was thinking of her own lofty goals. Grald was thinking of vengeance. But what could you expect? Grald was a dragon of the baser sort. He did not come from one of the noble families of dragonkind, who had ruled the world for centuries. In human terms, Grald was a peasant.

He’d been brought into this conspiracy by Maristara, who had chosen him because he was a peasant—rough and crude and not overly educated.

The elder female dragon, Maristara, had formed a theory—a brilliant theory—that if dragons and humans bred, they would produce offspring that would look human, but would be capable of using dragon-magic. Anora remembered how shocked and appalled she’d been at first hearing Maristara’s proposal, brought to her in secret. She’d been adamantly opposed to it—not only did it break all the laws of dragonkind, it could prove dangerous for dragons. Creating humans with magical powers! It was not to be considered. When Maristara had defied her and seized a human kingdom in order to begin her experiments, Anora had vowed that she would do everything in her power to stop her.

Time passed. The dragons, with their usual ineptness and inability to make decisions, bungled any chance of halting Maristara. The experiments in breeding proceeded and went far better than even Maristara had hoped. Sadly, as time passed, Anora had come to see things Maristara’s way.

These humans with the dragon-magic in their blood proved to be so powerful that they intimidated lesser humans. Thus, they made perfect rulers. And, because these humans had dragon-blood in their veins, they were easily manipulated by the dragons. Dragons ruled the half-dragon humans who ruled the humans. Perfect all around.

Maristara needed a male dragon to start the breeding program with the human females of Seth. She didn’t dare choose one of the males of the noble houses, for fear word would get out. She selected a male from a family of lesser dragons, a young male, aggressive and ambitious and cruel.

His name was Grald.