Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Dragon's Oath: A House of Night Novella by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Dragon Lankford is a Warrior of the Sons of Erebus, of the House of Night in Tulsa Oklahoma. But even though he is a Warrior now, and alone, he was once a mere fledgeling like the rest. So, what is his story?

Dragon was born Bryan Lankford in Scotland, third son of an Earl. But yet, because of his behavior, his father disowned him and banished him to America. Yet, Bryn was already feeling the sickness that comes on from Vampire fledglings being too close to humans, and when he was being escorted to the port, his father's men decided to take their revenge on him, mistreating them and taking his sword away.

Only after the searcher had claimed him did he get his sword back, and on seeing the dragon ship that had come to take him to America, changed his name to Dragon Lankford.

In St. Louis, Dragon met the love of his life, a Priestess of Nyx named Anastasia, who, despite her young age of 22, has already become tbe Master of Spells and Rituals of the St. Louis House of Night. She has come to do a spell of true seeing on her students, all of whom, even the young men, are in love with Dragon Lankford, who is also a student at the school, though a Sword Master, and is destined for the Sons of Erebus.

But doing the spell draws Dragon to her, and Anastasia discovers that she, too, is not immune to Dragon's charm. And he quickly falls in love with her, although he is not yet a vampire.

But more problems than the students' lusting after Dragon affect the House of Night, a human named Biddle has rescued a creature of Darkness, who is influencing him to be even harder and nastier towards vampires than he is usually inclined to be. But when Anastasia performs a peace spell to settle the feelings in St. Louis and she is attacked, will Dragon be able to save the woman he loves? And can his choices in the present day lose him Anastasia's spirit forever?

This is a short story set in the House of Night universe, dealing with the background of Dragon Lankford, one of Zoey Redbird's teachers. He is a Son of Erebus, and he teaches sword, being a swordmaster, but even he was once human. This books tells of his background, and how he came to Amerioa from Scotland.

He also fell in love and lost his love, and we get to see how he and Anastasia, a beautiful young priestess of Spells and Rituals, as they first meet and fall in love. Sweetly, but not quite so uncomplicatedly.

This is a very short book, illustrated, but short, and yet, the story reaches to the heart of the series and manages to illustrate exactly why I love this series so much. Although the beginning and ending do give away one of the twists to "Awakened", so you should wait to read this until after reading that book. it's still in the spirit of the best parts of the "House of Night" series. Recommended, with some caveats.

No comments: