![Cover of The Broken Queen (Court of the Last Dragon, Book 1) A sparkling purple background with a silver filigreed crown.](https://msv.gaiastream.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/The-Broken-Queen-cover-187x300.jpg)
The Dragon King
Harrai is the dragon king, king of the Miralem people, who are all telepathic. The royal Drai family of the Miralem ride dragons that are also telepathic, and the king is part dragon. He has been king since his parents died when he was a child, and for years only reluctantly filled that role, purely out of a sense of duty. There is some dark mystery surrounding his parents’ deaths. Now, he cannot marry until he finds the reincarnation of a prior queen, the Queen of Songs. It is she who will become his wife and bear his heirs.
Harrai learns in the first chapter that his queen has been found, but she is reincarnated as a Fanarlem, one of a race of created beings, made by the Daramon people using magic. The Fanarlem have doll-like bodies housing souls reincarnated by magical means to bring them to life. The Fanarlem are basically an enslaved race. Harrai is disappointed and even disgusted to learn this about the queen, in part because such a wife will never be able to bear him heirs, but also because Fanarlem are a product of the Daramon race, who are enemies to the Miralem. But he stoically sets out on his journey to retrieve her, because the reincarnated Queen of Songs is needed for other reasons, the most important that she should be able to use songs only she can remember, to strengthen the incubating dragon eggs.
The Fanarlem Concubine
Atorra has been at the front of the house of concubines where she was made for a year, an anniversary that isn’t celebrated, because it means no one wanted to buy her. Hrada, the Daramon who made her and still owns her, is concerned that no one has purchased her yet, and he suspects it’s because of her peculiarities, a love of singing and of animals and nature. She assures him that she doesn’t sing to the men who consider buying her. She loved to sing as a child and her songs had some form of enchantment, but she knows better now than to sing. Atorra has just been, as a last resort, promised to another man at a discount, when the dragon king Harrai shows up and claims her, purchasing her out from under the other man, enraging him so that they have to flee the town.
When Atorra learns she’s to be a queen, it doesn’t make sense to her, and she’s skeptical at first. She’s also unsure of this man she doesn’t yet know, who doesn’t seem to want her. He only needs her to fill a role at court, and to perform as the Queen of Songs. She becomes determined to do everything she can to fill that role. Her personal pride won’t let her do any less.
A Lurking Darkness
But she soon finds she’s not well accepted at court. There’s a lot of prejudice over her being a Fanarlem. Then, as soon as Atorra attempts to remember the songs, and lets one, in a sense, sing through her, she becomes conscious of a presence communicating telepathically with her, a voice only she can hear that feels dark and sinister. There is something dangerous at work.
The story is complex, as is the world it takes place in, and I’m certain I haven’t done it justice here. There’s a lot more to the dragons, and to the Miralem and their world that won’t fit into a brief description. I enjoyed this book immensely, partially because of the mixture of characters, who feel distinctive and well-rounded, and partly because of the enchanted world in which the story takes place. There are fantasy worlds in stories that put me off, and others I love, and this is one of those, except of course for the darkness that makes up the conflict of the story. It’s kind of like how I feel about Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I’d love to live in the Shire – after the scouring!
I’ll be anticipating the next in this series, for sure.