In Out of the Shadows, readers begin to discover a bit of the dragon culture in Heaven’s Realm. Rhys, the king of the dragons, should be the most familiar. However, one Baethir dragon named Sarkon makes a few appearances.

The door lifted up, and the wind gusted around the opening. Inside, Davian saw a great room. Round pillars reached from the floor to the ceiling. Three wooden chandeliers that held almost three hundred glow torches each hung on the ceiling, casting green light across the room. Scores of dragons crawled in the stone hallways, up the pillars, and around the ceiling. The sounds of their claws echoed through the tower’s halls.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be this big,” said Marcus.

“Neither was I,” said Davian.

“The hallways are over thirty feet wide,” said Rhys. “I think Ezzer built this place intending we dragons visit—before we turned neutral.”

Davian and the rest of his soldiers flew inside. He expected the temperature to drop the way it did when he entered a cave, but instead it felt warm. He looked around and saw fires crackling in the great hall’s ten main fireplaces. Even some of the pillars doubled as fireplaces and chimneys. He turned to Rhys. “Did you light these for us?”

“For us. It gets cold up here, even for dragons.”

A roar thundered through the tower, and the floor shook. A pale-grey Baethir dragon barreled toward them. His head reared back, ready to spew fire.

Kinole hopped in front of the soldiers and spread his wings to shield them. Rhys growled and sprung. He knocked the other dragon to the floor. A stream of flames, meant for Davian and his soldiers, shot from the Baethir’s mouth and reached the ceiling. The two beasts wrestled and clawed each other, growling in their own language. Rhys pinned the dragon to the ground and hissed. He climbed off and rejoined Davian and his soldiers.

“I apologize,” he said. “Sarkon is in charge of defending the tower, and we forgot to warn him about your arrival.”

Tyce and Theo caught their breath. “Can you tell him to make sure he warns the others?” said Tyce.

“Your nephew talks too much,” Davian muttered to Marcus. He forced a smile at Rhys and Sarkon. “Quite all right. I’m glad to have such a courageous Baethir keeping watch.”

Sarkon barely acknowledged Davian’s compliment. “The birdmen banished us from Earth,” he said to Rhys. “Why are you allowing them here?”

Rhys roared.

Davian and his soldiers covered their ears for a full minute until Rhys finished.

Sarkon bowed to Rhys. “As you wish, your majesty.” He turned and slinked down the hall.

While Sarkon’s role in Out of the Shadows is small, he has a huge role in Book III. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I don’t see anything wrong with giving clues. Here are two things that influenced my creation of Sarkon:

I needed tension between the dragons. First, I needed realism. All groups are composed of individuals. Individuals don’t always agree. Sarkon and Rhys not seeing eye to eye makes the dragon culture seem more real. Second, tension between Rhys and Sarkon makes for a more exiting, page-turning story. Third… Well, that’s a spoiler. But think about how boring Book 3 would without a bit of dragon-breathed napalm on each side of the battle…

I created Sarkon based on the tale behind the red dragon on the Welsh flag. Here is the summary: a red and white dragon were fighting underground, and the red dragon finally defeated the white dragon. Merlin used that as a prophecy that the Britons would eventually dominate the Saxons. (See here for more detail.) I realized that Rhys was rust colored, which was a version of red. So I made Sarkon a grey color with the intent of bringing up in Book 3 that both dragons were descended from the original dragons who fought.

I realize neither of those give much detail, but I wanted to put the ideas out there without spoiling Book 3.

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Fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is also the hose of The Final Cut In Movies radio show that airs on TMV Cafe Monday nights at 8:00 EST. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. To receive notification of M. B. Weston’s book releases click here to subscribe to Dark Oak Press & Media’s e-newsletter.