Fire-Drakes

 

The wind cut off, suddenly, with a sound like a snapping sail, and with a chittering, grumbling, growling vocalization similar to that of the cold-drakes, but quicker, and more aggressive.

He blinked grit from his eyes and beheld a drake so black it gleamed green and violet where the sun struck it. Glowing red-gold eyes, and sharp horns, and a long, serpent tail that whipped back and forth in agitation, snapping off yet more branches and flicking leaves from bushes.

It was bigger than Percy, and when it lowered its head to scan the forest around itself, Leif saw smoke curling from its nostrils. This one, undoubtedly, wouldn’t be breathing ice.

A shock of bright red drew Leif’s gaze to the animal’s back, and it was only then that he noticed the black leather and silverwork of a bridle, and a harness, and a saddle. And in that saddle sat a rider, in smooth black armor, and gleaming mail, with a black helm crested by a dyed horsehair tail of blood red.

He'd grown used to Percy, and Alfie, and Valgrind. Didn’t trust them, necessarily, but wasn’t alarmed by the mere sight of them. Didn’t feel the urge, as he did now, to crouch down on all fours, press his back into a corner, and growl.

“Holy gods,” Ragnar breathed beside him, wheezing from the pain. “Look at – it’s – holy gods.”

In Fortunes of War, Leif and Ragnar meet up with Amelia's party on the road and encounter her fire-drakes for the first time. Like the cold-drakes, they're four-legged wyverns, as opposed to the two-legged wyrms like the dragons in Game of Thrones. Just as the cold-drakes are impervious to snow, ice, and extremely cold temperatures, the fire-drakes are heat and fire-resistant. No spoilers, but we learn something about their blood as well, in FOW. 

Antonello Venditti Art

We see a bit more of Valencia in this book, and her growing bond with Reggie, which will be important moving forward. There are only three Drakes who can communicate with the dragons...but Náli is proof that you don't have to share a psychic bond with them to ride them 😉

I wanted Amelia's armor to be practical, and black for night camouflage reasons. I've envisioned it as looking like the vampire armor in the Underworld movies. 

The one bit of whimsy - for her and for Oliver, Tessa, and Náli, are the horsehair tails on their helmets. Every truly great helmet has some sort of decoration, and flying on the back of a drake offers a great opportunity for an ornament that will stream out behind like a banner. I originally intended the crests to look like Eomer's in The Two Towers, and I still do: all the cold-drake riders have bleached tails. 

But I dyed Amelia's red, to match her drakes' fire, and the lip paint she chooses to wear. A bold statement that says: I'm strong, look at me, I'm not afraid of you. Imagine my delight last fall when House of the Dragon dropped this look for Daemon in the first episode. I love Daemon for a lot of reasons, since that first read of Fire & Blood, so this was just the icing on the cake. Whoever designed his armor here had a vision. 

And then of course there's Shadow, honorary fire-drake, trusty steed, brilliant kicker. I will always have a terrible soft spot for a vicious warhorse. 

Fortunes of War is now available! You can grab it in Kindle, paperback, and Nook formats, and I'll see if I can get it up on Kobo soon.