Battle Dragons

Abel loves dragons, but after a disastrous showing in his dragon rider exam, he feels he's destined never to pilot one. That's why when an opportunity presents itself-even though it's tied to one of Drakopolis's mob-like kins-Abel leaps at the opportunity. But soon he's swept into a game of danger and cruelty-cruelty toward people, and especially toward dragons. With his own family's loyalties split between the kins, soon Abel will need to choose a side. Will he join one of the kins... or strike a path all his own?

In a modern mega-city built around dragons, one boy gets caught up in the world of underground dragon battles and a high-stakes gang war that could tear his family apart. In the city of Drakopolis, dragons and humans have co-existed for centuries. Dragons burn the city's garbage, taxi its busy citizens from place to place, and even compete in vicious underground battles for ganglike kins. But the dragons also compete in legal sport, like the spectacular aerial races that draw in cheering crowds by the thousands. Abel is at just such a race when he witnesses something terrible. A long-shot competitor surprises the crowd by winning the relay, but then flies into a destructive rage! Someone in the city is experimenting on dragons, dosing them with a dangerous serum that provides speed and strength at the cost of the dragons' health. Abel must find out who's behind the experiments and end them. But with his sister working for the kins, and his brother in the city's secret police, will that mean he has to face off against his own family?

In a modern mega-city built around dragons, one boy gets caught up in the world of underground dragon battles and a high-stakes gang war that could tear his family apart. Banished from Drakopolis to the desolate frontier town of Glassblower's Gulch, Abel and his family must face a harsh new reality: life without dragons. Far from the lights and lizards of the megacity, Abel's new home effectively bans the great beasts. Anyone caught smuggling dragons is hauled away by the ruthless sheriff and her fearsome deputies. They have the only dragons in town, and they run the dreaded dragon rodeo, which pits those who fall afoul of the sheriff's "justice" against a wild dragon in a competition for their freedom. It's dragon versus human and only one can win. Cut off from his friends and desperate to keep his fractious family together, Abel is determined not to break a single rule, even though the sheriff has it out for him. He's going to be a model citizen. Then he discovers the baby wyvern. It's a tiny, defenseless thing-and it definitely won't survive without his help. Abel has made it his mission to aid any dragon that needs him. But what is he willing to risk for a baby wyvern in a town without mercy?