The Priory of the Orange Tree

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Inys is the last bastion of a dwindling human world, where dragons are believed to be extinct and the East is feared as a realm of blood-drinking and fire-wielding dragons. The realm of the Nameless One, a dark fire-breathing creature which in centuries past, nearly destroyed the world before being locked away behind an abyss, waiting to return.

Eady Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Eady knows the forbidden truth: that the feared dragons of the East were never truly destroyed - and a hidden dragon-worshiping secret sect is preparing for war.

Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but she is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

In this epic saga, Shannon creates a world built of fire, blood, and prophecy, weaving together the threads of three very different women's destinies as they battle for truth, love, and the future of their world.