Mary Gillgannon

The shore reels with flame-coloured mist as lanterns swing over a quay where a weathered bard named Kael watches a dragon arc from the hillside like a living omen. The island breathes with their silhouettes: a hunter-become-guardian who owes a debt to a creature that remembers every oath in the old tongue, and a city whose stubborn walls ring with songs that outlive the tide. Kael’s flute flutters between the cords of a dawning plot, as a hidden council’s whispers braid with a rising tide of unrest—merchants seeking leverage, fishermen whose nets hide dangerous rumors, and a royal family that fears its own mirror. Between the echo of hooves on stone and the smoke of something ancient waking beneath the sea, Kael must choose: risk a dragon’s mercy to save a village, or betray the trust of the one ally who has ever listened to the island without flinching. The dragon’s hunger is not for gold, but for a memory carved in air and fire, and the bard’s truth could become the map that binds them all to the island’s uneven, luminous fate.

A character-centered teaser that follows a pivotal night in a Moon-lit court, where loyalty collides with oath, and a reluctant heroine must decide how much of her own heart she’s willing to gamble for the realm’s fragile future.