The King of the Crags - Stephen Deas

As the Realms teeter on the brink of war, the fate of humanity rests on the survival of one majestic white dragon.

Prince Jehal's lover, Zafir, now sits atop the Realms with hundreds of dragons and their riders at her beck and call. Yet Jehal wants the glory of commanding the earth and sky for himself-no matter whom he must sacrifice to get it.

But Jehal may not need to act at all when Zafir puts the old queen on trial for treason, angering those loyal to the former regime. And their discontent is fed by rumors of the return of the Red Riders, heralds of revolution and doom.

For the prophecy speaks: "Out of the sun there shall come a white dragon, and with the white dragon, a red rider. Thieves and liars shall quiver and weep, for the rider's name shall be Justice, and the dragon shall be Vengeance."

Jehal doesn't fear prophecies, but he does fear that the white dragon still lives-and if that is so, then blood will flow on all sides....

Stephen Deas is the author of the acclaimed short story "The Snow Fox." The Adamantine Palace (Volume I of The Memory of Flames Trilogy) is his first novel. He lives in southeast England with his wife and two children.