It has been almost 1,000 years since the draconic army waged war against Metredom. Ead has been undercover in the Inysh court for 8 years when reports of Draconic attacks have started to rise. While working to help protect queen Sabran Brethnet she must hide her true faith and her Maige powers given to her by the Orange Tree from everyone at court. After 8 years of living in the Privy court, the Hawk starts getting suspicious of Ead and her true loyalties which then leads to her having to escape the castle with the royal guard on her tail. After he departure Ead realizes that she has to uncover the truth behind the 1,000 year old legend that states as long as the Brehtent line lives the Draconic leader will not rise. During her journey she learned that the Brehtent line is not what is keeping the leader to rise, but a curse placed on the Draconic leader that states that he will rise on the third day of spring 1,000 years later. Now with the 1,000 year mark coming close she goes back to Inys to gather support to help her stop the Draconic leader from rising. While she and Sabran go and find Ascalon, the only sword capable of defeating the Draconic leader, some of her friends embark on a trip to the far east where they hope to find the second half of a jewel that will help power Ascalon so that it can defeat the dragon army’s leader. Relations between Inysh and the East have been strained since the dark plague and because of the East’s relations with the dragons. While sailing they come upon an island. The island is home to the scholars from the East who study the dragons. While they were staying on the island a girl named Tane attempted to steal their ship. Tane used to be a dragon rider but when her dragon was sold out by Niclay Roos, a former alchemist that served the Inysh queen, she was forced to become a scholar on feather island. When Loth tried to stop Tane he got captured and knocked out. When he woke he remembered that she was carrying a gem similar to the one back Inys.
The Priory of the Orange Orange Tree, while very well detailed, was too long and overly complicated. The author would spend a lot of time explaining something that would later have no effect on the plot. A good example of this is Queen Sabran getting betrothed and pregnant. While the plot of her not being able to get pregnant because of an injury sustained by the second in command of the Draconic army is well written and exciting to read, the impact it had on this book's plot was not worth the 50 pages it added on. These events can build character but the author does not develop the character enough where the differences between the Sabran after her injury and the one before is noticeable enough when reading. Some advice I would give to feature readers is that when you read the first few chapters it can seem very overwhelming
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