Acknowledgements

With thanks to Simon Spanton, devourer of unnecessary prologues, who asked for dragons and got more than he bargained for. To John Jarrold, agent overlord. To the copy-editors and proofreaders, whose names I’ve rarely known. To Dominic Harman and Stephen Youll for their gorgeous dragons and the artists who turned them into covers. To Jon Weir, who demanded the duel.

To lovers of dragons. And to all alchemists everywhere, unseen, unrewarded, tirelessly working to keep our monsters at bay.

To you, for reading this.

For any who want to explore the world of the dragons for its own sake, you can do so at the online gazetteer at

www.stephendeas.com/gazetteer.

And lastly, if you liked this book, please tell someone!