In a violent world, cunning and skill are paramount to survival.
The once-vast reptilian empire in Draco is in disarray. Noble houses vie for position and wealth, fanned by a depraved, jaded tyrant who holds power through a fleet of ancient, lethal destroyers.
Summoned to Darban to fight in the Emperor's Tournament, Bálok, Lord of the Eltanin system, has no choice but to comply. His bloody reputation in the ring has captured the attention of Emperor Tashek and he must answer the call for fighters from the top-ranking Drahkian nobility to compete for the prize of a small imperial destroyer.
Walking into a maelstrom of hostile factions and political intrigue, Bálok's agenda is all too clear: to keep the destroyer out of enemy hands and to bring his only son and Eltanin officers back out of Darban alive. And while the rare opportunity exists, he privately vows to find and kill the one man from his past who had savagely pushed him beyond sanity.
As the tournament begins, Izar, the flamboyant Lord of Rastaban, despised by Tashek and excluded from the lists, blasts his way into the arena and petitions to be allowed to fight. The stakes of the deadly games escalate to new heights and Bálok warily finds himself the focus of more than one pair of watchful eyes.
–"If you claim your power over your rage, my god, you'll be ... magnificent."
The first of three prequels, this stand-alone novella tells the backstory of characters who appear as antagonists in the epic science fantasy series T'nari Renegades–Pleiadian Cycle.
EXCERPT INCLUDED from Blood of the Prime, Book I: "Attack on Prion"
