Dompel jezelf onder in een wereld waar oude magie in steen en water huist en het lot van de bewoners vormgeeft. Deze serie verkent thema's als rebellie, verboden liefde en de strijd om te overleven tegen overweldigende tegenspoed. Volg personages terwijl ze navigeren door een rijk dat op de rand van vernietiging staat, waar mythische krachten en krachtige artefacten de sleutel tot het lot van de mensheid in handen hebben.
Kaiser Chien Hua befindet sich auf der Flucht vor Rebellen und muss sich auf die Insel Taishu zurückziehen – wo die Jade abgebaut wird, der er seine übernatürlichen Fähigkeiten verdankt. Hier will er sich und die Seinen gegen die Usurpatoren verteidigen. Doch vor der Insel liegt ein Drache mit Feuer und Magie an den Meeresgrund gekettet. Und der Mönch, der für die Kontrolle über den Drachen mit großem Schmerz bezahlt, ist seines Leidens überdrüssig …
In this soaring epic, Daniel Fox weaves the ancient myths and legends of feudal China into a fantasy world of brutal war and brittle passion, immortal gods and mystical creatures. With the long-chained dragon now free and the rebels’ invasion smashed by her exultant fury, the balance of power has changed. Young emperor Chien Hua is no longer struggling for survival; now he is ambitious to strike back. As treacherous General Ping Wen whispers in the emperor’s ear, not even Chien Hua’s beloved concubine or his most trusted bodyguard can reason with him. Worse, prolonged exposure to magical jade is changing him His increasingly godlike powers are making him dangerously rash.But with the dragon patrolling the skies above and the strait beneath, the emperor’s forces have no hope of launching a counterattack—until a goddess moves to interfere. Yet neither the clash of armies nor the opposing wills of goddess and dragon can decide ultimate victory or defeat. The fate of the war lies in the blood-deep bonds between the dragon and the boy Han, her jailer and her liberator—and in the prices both will pay for their freedom.
The mythic beasts and glorious legends of feudal China illuminate a world at war in this, the conclusion to Daniel Fox’s critically acclaimed series. Whatever they thought, this was always where they were to the belly of the dragon, or the belly of the sea. More by chance than good judgment, the young emperor has won his first battle. The rebels have retreated from the coastal city of Santung—but they’ll be back. Distracted by his pregnant concubine, the emperor sends a distrusted aide, Ping Wen, to govern Santung in his place. There, the treacherous general will discover the healer Tien, who is obsessed with a library of sacred mage texts and the secrets concealed within—secrets upon which, Ping Wen quickly realizes, the fate of the whole war may turn.As all sides of this seething conflict prepare for more butchery, a miner of magical jade, himself invulnerable, desperately tries to save his beautiful and yet brutally scarred clan cousin; a priestess loses her children, who are taken as pawns in a contest beyond her comprehension; and a fierce and powerful woman commits an act of violence that will entwine her, body and soul, with the spirit of jade itself. Amid a horde of soldiers, torturers, and runaways, these people will test both their human and mystical powers against a violent world. But one force trumps the huge, hungry, wrathful dragon.