Of Blood and Fire

The first installment of The Bound and The Broken series is set in a continent ruled by the Lorian Empire. The empire rose to power when Fane Mortem betrayed The Order, a coalition of mages and Draleid (warriors bonded to dragons). Fane destroyed The Order's capital, hunted the continent's non-human races nearly to extinction, and seized the throne. In a brief prologue, a knight of the Knights of Achyron named Kallinvar presses the last Sigil of Achyron into a dying man's chest, inducting him into this holy order before the approaching Blood Moon, a prophesied ominous event.

Calen Bryer, a young man nearing eighteen summers in the small village of The Glade, lives with his parents: Vars, the blacksmith and a war veteran, and Freis, a healer. His brother Haem died two years earlier fighting Uraks, monstrous grey-skinned creatures with blood-red eyes. His closest friends are Dann Pimm, a talented archer, and Rist Havel, an intellectually curious young man. Calen's sister Ella secretly plans to leave the village with her boyfriend Rhett Fjorn, captain of the town guard, because Vars bitterly blames Rhett for Haem's death.

The Proving, a coming-of-age rite, requires young men to survive three nights in Ölm Forest and return with a predator's pelt. Calen, Dann, and Rist fight off a massive bear, but the next day their antagonist Fritz Netly shoots Rist in the leg, steals the pelt, and forces the boys deeper into the forest. They encounter two Uraks. Calen kills the smaller one, but the larger stands over him with an axe raised when a blinding flash of light erupts and the creature collapses dead. Rist is the only one who could have produced the blast, though he stares at his hands in confusion. When reporting to the council, Calen credits the kill to Dann.

Vars gifts Calen an elven sword, and the boys travel to Milltown. At the docks, Calen spots Farda Kyrana, a Justicar (high-ranking enforcer) of the Lorian Empire, watching from a warship. At an inn, Calen meets Erik Virandr, a young swordsman, then stumbles into a confrontation between Erik's group, including his father Aeson Virandr and brother Dahlen, and Lorian soldiers. A battle erupts; Calen kills a soldier while helping Erik. Aeson uses magic to scatter the soldiers, and everyone flees together.

The group camps in Ölm Forest with three Jotnar (giants) and Therin, an elf whom Calen knows from visits to The Glade. Aeson reveals a dragon egg from Valacia, the northern icelands, retrieved for King Arthur Bryne of Belduar, the last free city. No one has ever bonded with a Valacian dragon. Calen hears a voice in his mind repeating "Draleid n'aldryr," meaning "Dragonbound by fire," whenever he nears the egg. Aeson tells Therin he believes Calen is their Draleid. The boys ride home, but Ella and Rhett have already departed.

At home, Calen finds imperial soldiers surrounding his parents. The Inquisitor Rendall accuses Calen of murder. When Vars demands a fair fight, Rendall runs him through. Farda overpowers Calen, and when Freis throws herself at Farda to protect her son, Farda lifts her with invisible force and hurls her through the wall of their home, which erupts in flames. Calen believes his mother and Ella are dead. Therin, Aeson, and the others drag Calen away as the group flees.

Consumed by grief, Calen agrees to travel to Belduar if Aeson trains him and promises a chance at revenge. Dann and Rist join him. At Aeson's urging, Calen touches the egg. Fire wraps around his hands without burning him, and the shell cracks to reveal a small dragon with white scales fading to black and pale lavender eyes. The hatchling crawls into Calen's lap and falls asleep.

Farda sends Fritz to track Ella, who left The Glade the night before the attack. In Camylin, assassins attack the group's inn, and a running battle separates them. Dahlen stays behind to protect Rist but faces a Fade, an entity impervious to mortal weapons. The Fade takes Rist. Therin explains that Rist can wield the Spark, the source of all magic, and has likely been taken to the empire's High Tower for training.

Calen reluctantly accepts he cannot rescue Rist. Therin teaches him to draw on the Spark, and Calen names the dragon Valerys, the Old Tongue word for "ice." In the Darkwood, Uraks attack. Calen conjures fire but nearly kills himself by drawing too deeply from the Spark. Elven rangers from Aravell arrive under High Captain Thalanil and destroy the Uraks. Five rangers swear an oath to protect Calen and Valerys. Therin reveals that Aeson is a Rakina, "one who is broken": a former Draleid whose dragon was killed by Fane's Dragonguard, the emperor's elite dragon riders.

In a parallel storyline, Ella and Rhett near Gisa when imperial soldiers identify Ella by name. In the ensuing fight, Rhett is fatally speared and dies in Ella's arms. Faenir, the family's wolfpine (a large wolf-like creature), arrives alone and kills the remaining soldiers.

The group enters Belduar through a hidden mountain tunnel. The city is built into the mountainside in tiers of concentric walls. King Arthur welcomes them. Valerys grows rapidly and achieves his first flight above the city. The Fade appears one night, threatening to torture Rist, but Valerys drives it away with a piercing shriek.

In Al'Nasla, the imperial capital, Rist awakens in a locked room. Brother Garramon, a mage of the Circle of Magii (the empire's order of mages), offers to train him. Rist accepts, though none of the letters he sends home receive replies.

Arthur asks Calen to accompany him to Durakdur, a dwarven mountain city, to persuade the Dwarven Freehold (the alliance of four dwarven realms) to support Belduar against the imperial blockade. Queen Kira of Durakdur refuses and mocks Calen, but Queen Pulroan, the eldest ruler, demands he prove his character. Calen delivers an impassioned speech pledging to stand on Belduar's walls. While the council deliberates, imperial assassins infiltrate the city, and Calen saves Kira with magic. They race back to find Belduar under siege: Soldiers have entered through the hidden tunnels, revealing a traitor. Ihvon Arnell, Arthur's trusted advisor, sells Calen and Valerys's location for imperial amnesty, driven by the loss of his own family years earlier. Calen reminds Ihvon of his dead son, however, and Ihvon has a change of heart.

In the great hall, the Fade has killed King Arthur. It wields a nithral, a Soulblade forged from the Spark, whose black fire burns through flesh. Ellisar, one of the sworn elven rangers, is killed. Valerys, badly wounded, stalks behind the Fade unnoticed. Calen channels threads of Spirit and Fire into the dragon, and Valerys breathes fire for the first time, consuming the Fade entirely. Calen collapses, nearly dead from the effort.

Arthur's son Prince Daymon is crowned king with the four dwarven rulers at his side. Calen and Valerys stand with the new king as Daymon declares the Draleid have returned. Word arrives that the imperial army, accompanied by the Dragonguard, marches toward the city. Rist continues training but receives no replies to his letters. Ella buries Rhett and continues north with Shirea, a woman whose partner was also killed, and Faenir. At the docks, a stranger with a thin scar who flips a coin matching Farda's habitual gesture helps Ella board a ship. She accepts, unaware of who the man may be, as the vessel sails north.