Prophecy of the Kings · Book 2
Dragon Rider
Are dragons saviours or destroyers?
In secret, the enemy works tirelessly to prevent the Prophecy from coming to pass. Their spies whisper lies, their assassins strike from the shadows, and allies are turned against one another before they realise betrayal is already at their door. Now a new faction rises — the Prieste of Ryoch — seeking not only power, but dominion over the very souls of men.
Excerpt
They lure the young into their ranks and teach them to commune with their shaol, guardian spirits that can transform them into near-unstoppable warriors, merciless on the battlefield. Meanwhile, armies gather unseen beyond the horizon, and with every passing day the enemy feeds doubt and mistrust until fear itself becomes a weapon. In such a darkening storm, who can still be trusted — and how much longer before the dam finally breaks and war comes roaring through?
"Dragon Rider manages to achieve the difficult task of improving on its predecessor with a sweeping tale of high fantasy that will keep you hooked until the very last page."
— SFBooks.com
Book Details
- Author
- David Burrows
- Series
- Prophecy of the Kings · Book 2
- Genre
- Epic Dark Fantasy
- Format
- Ebook
- ASIN
- B0038BRQO6
More from the series
Buy My Books
Click on the retailers listed below or go to my Buy My Books page.
If you have questions about Dragon Rider, please take a look at my FAQ page — it covers where to start, the characters and how the books link together.
How Do You Kill a Dragon?
In fantasy, it is dangerously easy to write yourself into a corner. Take the dragon: vast, ancient, armoured, and almost impossible to kill. If such a creature has no weakness, the story can quickly lose its edge. The beast sweeps across kingdoms, burns cities to ash, and leaves armies broken in its wake. Terrifying, yes — but without a way to fight back, even terror can become predictable and the tale becomes stale.
So how have other storytellers solved the problem? Myth gives us brave knights such as St George, charging into legend with lance and sword. After a mighty clash, the dragon lies slain, and statues immortalise the hero standing triumphant over the body, sword raised in glory. It is stirring imagery — but is it enough? Dragons have scales like armour and breathe fire, acid, or worse. How could any knight survive long enough to strike the killing blow?
Tolkien's Flaw and Television's Brute Force
In The Hobbit, Tolkien found a brilliant answer: a flaw. Smaug, magnificent and vain, reveals the one gap in his jewelled armour when he shows off to Bilbo. That vital secret is carried to Bard by a speaking bird, and Bard, armed with his final black arrow, takes aim at the exposed patch. One shot. One weakness. One legendary fall.
On television, House of the Dragon offers a more brutal solution: dragons destroy each other. The result is spectacular — fire tearing through the sky, wings beating against smoke, monsters colliding in battles that feel both devastating and inevitable. The series also turns to massive crossbows and vicious dragon-slaying bolts, proving that when brute force fails, ingenuity must sharpen the blade.
Ariome's Impossible Challenge
In my own book, The Prophecy of the Kings, I wanted the same problem to feel immediate, dangerous, and almost impossible. Ariome, a sorceress fighting on the Trosgarth side, finds herself in the chaos of battle. Above her, a dragon ridden by Kaplyn is carving terror through the forces of Trosgarth, her allies. Around her, sorcerers are summoning demons but the dragon holds them at bay. The allies, her enemy, are holding — barely — and much of their hope rests on that dragon. If Ariome can bring it down, the reward could be immense. A kingdom, perhaps. But first she must answer one terrifying question: how do you kill a dragon?
Ariome relishes a challenge, but this one is no simple puzzle. The dragon is airborne, so no knight can ride it down on a trusty charger. She cannot simply strike it with raw magic; in this world, magic has rules, and Ariome does not possess the power to overwhelm such a creature head-on. Around her, the screams of battle is terrifying, the clash of swords rings out, spells crackle, arrows fall without mercy, and the battle lines ebb and flow. She has no time for grand plans. She must think — and think fast.
No Easy Answers
Imagine yourself standing there: battle roaring on every side, counter-spells flashing through the air, arrows raining down indiscriminately, and a summoned demon threatening to turn on its own master. How would you survive? As an author, it would have been easy to cheat — a wave of the hand, a burst of magic, and the dragon falls. But that would rob the moment of danger. Like Ariome, I had to find a clever way to defeat a dragon in flight: a creature superbly protected by scales, without Smaug's fatal gap and with no obvious flaw to exploit.
How does Ariome do it? Does she succeed at all? Read The Prophecy of the Kings and discover the answer.