Twyla Banneker and Frank Ellis lived next door to each other for years, in the town of Eternity, on the island of Tanria. Along with their spouses, they've been friends for years. But Twyla's husband died, and Frank's wife left him, and their children are all grown.
They're still friends, and still living next door. In fact, they are now both Tanrian marshals, Frank with two more years of service than Twyla. They're also regarded as a very cute couple by everyone but themselves.
They are tasked with patrolling the dangerous area that was the former prison of the Old Guards, and they love their rather exciting work. Twyla found it a welcome break from being a mother and perceived as nothing else.
Except it's not so dangerous, or so exciting, anymore. The creatures called drudges have been eliminated, and the old prison territory is much, much safer.
Then on their latest patrol, they find a fellow marshal, one of their more annoying fellow marshals, covered in liquid glitter, and quite dead. Oh, and then there are the dragon eggs. Dragons are supposed to be extinct. The eggs must be ancient, right?
Wrong, Momma dragon comes along, and is able to grab two of the eggs; the third winds up hatching right next to Frank, and deciding that he must be mom. She's shiny pink and totally adorable, and cannot be separated from Frank. Literally. With baby dragon attached, he needs help dressing and bathing.
And Twyla and Pen Drucker, the former partner of the dead marshal, are on the track of any more dragons, and soon entangled with another case, of valuable minerals apparently being stolen from nearby mine, that they aren't supposed to be involved in. The mine is in the next district over.
Oh, and those dragons? They're assumed to be very dangerous, the war mounts of the Old Gods, but the baby dragon is impossibly cute.
Everything Twyla and Pen learn about the small but increasing number of dragons in Tanria says they're not dangerous. That goes against what everyone else believes, including the charming, upper class, university educated dragon expert brought in from outside. He likes Frank well enough, but thinks Twyla is the one who's very cute,
And it turns out that case involving smuggled minerals is very directly related to the death of their annoying fellow marshal, and to the sudden reappearance of dragons in Tanria.
Meanwhile,Twyla and Frank are being differently dense about each other. Twyla figures even her early-50s best friend can't be interested in early-50s her. Frank thinks Twyla's carefully maintained appearance of lack of romantic interest is the result of having never gotten over the death of her obviously much-beloved husband.
There are adventures and humor and the cracking of many illusions,not just relationship illusions, It's a lot of fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment