With the end of the D’Orsay line, Leander Hastings and Linda Downey moved into Dragon’s Ghyll Castle. No one seemed interested in contesting their claim.
Jason never went back to Britain. They buried him in the churchyard at St. Catherine’s, his mother’s amulet in his hands. They raised a stone, and on it was engraved Draca Heorte, Dragonheart. Mercedes and Leesha planted rosemary, for remembrance, and vines climbed over his stone, and flowers bloomed summer and winter over his grave.
Trinity suffered through a siege of confusion and investigations, invasions by government agents, and talk of terrorist plots. But it is difficult to get at the truth when a whole range of possibilities is off the table and those few who know something aren’t talking.
Ellen was a terrible patient but fully recovered, except she had a new set of scars like a soldier’s tattoos. Jack and Ellen and even Leesha Middleton threw themselves into the rebuilding of the town, an effort led by Jack’s mother, Becka, who knew how to get things done and would make sure they were done right. Leesha’s aunt Millisandra was a major donor.
When summer finally came, Madison Moss went home to claim her inheritance.
She could sit on her front porch and hear Booker Creek and look down the long slopes to the river, glinting in the slanted sunlight. And in those hills she saw the reflection of other hills, slashed by ghylls, set with jeweled meres and standing stones.
She could paint if she liked and sleep in the sun if she liked, something for which dragons are well suited. But what she liked most was tromping along Booker Creek with Seph McCauley, who seemed as at home there as anywhere.
People in the county said Madison Moss was different— somehow changed by her time up by the lake. She looked you in the eye more, and her eyes were different, too, almost mesmerizing. And sometimes her skin seemed to glitter and spark when the sunlight struck it just so. Everyone knew you didn’t mess with Madison Moss. You never could tell what that girl would end up to be.
Brice Roper’s murderer was never identified. The Roper mine eventually played out and closed, and Bryson Roper, Sr., went off someplace where there were other fortunes to be made.
Seph didn’t know the ways of dragons, but he knew the ways of magic, and so he and Madison sorted some things out together and left others alone. And if sometimes they drifted on to other, more interesting topics, they could scarcely be blamed.
They’d lie in the hammock that swayed over Booker Creek and stare up at the canopy of leaves and dream dreams that they hoped would come true.
Among the Weir, legends about the Dragon Heir that appeared in Trinity spread, becoming more and more elaborate, fanned by certain storytelling factions among the various guilds. No one knew where the Lady had gone or when she might reappear. Wizards pressed their hands anxiously against their breasts and tossed and turned in their beds and wondered what it would be like to be Anaweir. And behaved; temporarily, at least.
Around the world, the magical guilds celebrated—all the while knowing that fear of dragons can’t last forever.
Contents
The Warrior Heir
Prologue
1. The Flying Lobeck
2. The Road Trip
3. Digging Up Dead Relatives
4. Shadowslayer
5. The Warrior Heir
6. Dangerous Games
7. Beginner Warrioring
8. The Apprentice
9. The Bout
10. The Street Fight
12. A Visit With Dr. Longbranch
13. Cumbria
14. When Lovers Meet
15. Raven's Ghyll
16. A Summons To Court
17. The Game
18. Trinity
Acknowledgments
The Wizard Heir
Prologue
1. Toronto
2. The Havens
3. A Magical Collaborative
4. A Visit To The Alumni House
5. Total Commitment
6. Consequences
7. Jason
8. Through The Portal
9. Desperate Measures
10. The Weirweb
11. The Sanctuary
12. Hastings
13. A Picnic On The River
14. The Wizard Council
15. The Storm
17. New Threats
18. Reunions
19. Second Sister
20. The Interguild Council
21. Wizard Discipline
22. Trinity And Cumbria
The Dragon Heir
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Raven's Ghyll
2. Sanctuary
3. Banished From The Sceptred Isle
4. The Art Of The Deal
5. To Church
6. Passages
7. A Change Of Plans
8. Transitions
9. Terror In The Crypt
10. Coal Grove, Act I
11. Painted Poison
12. A Babe In The Woods
13. Up Mountain
14. Gone South
15. Along Came A Spider
16. Arrivals And Departures
18. Mind-burner
19. Boundaries
20. The Trader
21. Life As Art
22. Strange Bedfellows
23. An Ultimatum
24. Fool
25. Sightings
26. No-man's-land
27. A Deal With The Devil
28. To The Salt Mines
29. Exodus
30. Agreeing To Disagree
31. Armageddon On The Lake
32. Don't Look Back
33. Weirstorm
34. Through Enemy Lines
35. A House Divided
36. The Dragonheart
37. The Dragon Heir