<b>From the back cover of the DAW first edition:</b> "Dragon quest - As war rages between the armies of Cononnan and LeSenicca, an equally desperate campaign is being fought between the Commune, which uses dragon magic, and the coven, which draws it power from an older and darker source.
<p>Now, with the dragons vanished from Coronnan, driven off by the treachery of Lord Krej, the Commune has been forbidden to practice its arts. Without their spell-backing, and undermined by traitors within his own court, King Darville finds himself hard-pressed to maintain order in the land. And then Senior Magician Jaylor becomes convinced that he has been betrayed by Darville when the Commune is attacked by troops magically disguised as the king's forces. Fighting for survival in a suddenly hostile land and hiding in the one sanctuary left to his people, Jaylor knows the Commune's and the kingdom's only hope is to find the dragons and bring them back to Coronnan.
<p>Yet this quest is not his to undertake. It falls instead to a powerful but untested magician, the orphan boy known as Yaakke. Yaakke has been called by the dragons themselves, lured with the promise that when he finds them he will also discover his true identity. But Yaakke has never been able to gather dragon magic, and with Shayla injured and trapped in a land bereft of earth magic, he will have to venture into the heart of the enemy's stronghold in search of the means to set her free..."
