Monster

Training: Hostage

Another Week

Basics

For Her Birthday

Inheritance

Keng

Riddle: House

Stay

Everywoman

Training: Guards

Undone

Amber

Portraits

Monster: Puppeteer

Eligible

The Nine

Tomb Sweeping Day

Arrow

Nothing

Ripples

Honor

Delayed

Ferry

The Ride

Vigil

Partners

Unsaid

Remembrance

Prophecy

Meddling

Questions

Ying

The Hundred Dragons of Sumbral

The Path to Peace

Dragon Breath

A Gift

Fire Bones

Training: Staff

Escort

The Dead

Interlude

Fire

Cyrus

Dawn

A Warning

Again

Reasons

The Border

Heat

Her

Him

Monster: Oasis

The Horse Woman

Negotiation

Stepmother

King’s Guard

Veto

Extracts from the Recollections...

Entourage

Between

The Wild Horses Came Hastening

Fealty

Sheep

The Eighth Son of Ganbataar

Anchor

Khidyr

Proposition

Paired

Summer’s End

Homecoming

Satisfactory

Tian

Monster: Sister

Dragon Mountain

Allies

Khan

Loyalty

Target

Oath

Recruits

Bridge

Way-Fort

Bowl

Lantern Festival

Coast

Monster: Opening Gambit

Spy

Lotus Moon

Five Arrows

Kingship

Gan

Counter Gambit

Veneer

Yunxu

Conclusions

Since Sumbral

Further Extracts from the...

Monster: Tahj

Boyhood

Joy

Maneuvers

Addendum

Reunion

The Imperium

Beneath the Blade

Equinox

Logic

Bloodshed

Wounded

Daunted

The Imperial War: Onset

Boatman

Impostor

First Lesson

The Imperial War: Second Battle

How the Battle Turned

Collaboration

Journal

Gul

Pyre

Tenth Lesson

Between Battles

When King Xau was Gone

Taunting Fate

The Imperial War: Third Battle

Double Duty

Inside the Tent

Quiet

Seventeenth Lesson

The Imperial War: Fourth Battle

Convergence

Judgment

Enough

Peace Terms

Parting

Supplemental Extracts from the...

March

Words

Lair

Perspective

Desert

Water

Besieged

Game

Shards

Breath

Comfort

Beast

Last Watch

Return

Mortal

The Sign of the Dragon

Execution

Addendum to the Recollections...

Burial

Coronation

The Sign of the King

The Cat’s Epilogue

Two Weeks

A Note on the Title

Acknowledgments

Original Publication

About the Author

To Lucy, William, and Andrew,
who were there during the writing,
and in memory of my parents,
who gave me Xau and Donal,
though I didn’t realize it at the time.

This ebook edition of The Sign of the Dragon is being published during the coronavirus pandemic. The author’s share of any proceeds from 2020 sales will be split between the following charities: Doctors Without Borders, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and the Trevor Project.

INTERREGNUM

Sixteen years old, fourth son,

still they sent him to the mountain

together with his brothers

before their father’s body stiffened,

the kingdom suspended without a king:

four princes, one crown

(a crown he had no use for,

a crown of war, alliances, duty).

He slept on straw near his horse,

displacing the stableboy,

waited for his eldest brother to return

triumphant, ready for the throne—

then brother after brother vanished

into rock and ice and cloud.

The steward took his sword,

his shield, sent him out at dusk:

no torch, no guide, no horse,

no servant, no food, no water.

Snow deepened under his boots;

he waded through drifts,

fell once, twice. The wind mocked him;

he thought of the warm stable,

the bed of straw, his horse,

sleep—but sleep meant death,

so he stumbled on. The wind

called his brothers’ names.

He shouted back his own name;