Three years have passed since the final chapters in DragonKnight.  Sir Bardon, an o'rant and emerlindian knight in Paladin's service, has married Kale Allerion, a wizard and DragonKeeper. When the novel starts, they are standing in the remains of a village destroyed by fire dragons, flying weapons of warfare. Bardon has his hands full as he tries to prevent Kale from entering the partially destroyed inn. But Kale feels the pull of her DragonKeeper talent towards the crumbling building. After Bardon forces her to think through a plan, she enters the decrepit structure. Accompanying her is Ardeo, a white and grey minor dragon that glows in the dark, and Pat, a chubby brown minor dragon whose talent is repairing things. They make their way to the inn's basement, Ardeo lighting the way and Pat slowing Kale's headlong rush into the rickety remains.

But greater danger lies outside. When Kale exists the unstable building, Bardon is gone. Dibl, another one of the DragonKeeper's minor charges, informs Kale via mindspeaking about a small group of bisonbecks that entered the inn's yard while she was inside. By the time she locates her husband the fight is almost done. Bardon has downed two of the bisonbecks and the minor dragons with him have blinded another one with their caustic spit. She flattens one of the two remaining fighters and Bardon knocks out the last bisonbeck. Kale uses a vine to immobilize the only conscious prisoner and Bardon begins to interrogate him.

The bisonbeck, a soldier in Crim Cropper's army, gives Bardon some useful information, but not much. The husband and wife duo head on their way, determined to carry out their original task-finding Regidor and his wife, Gilda, who are rare meech dragons. Gilda is dying from an evil spell and Bardon and Kale think they've found the cure. But will they reach their meech friends in time? And what has happened to the outside world while they've lived in isolation in the bogs?  From the devastation left by the fire dragons, they suspect war will soon come to Arama, a war that will determine if their homeland lives free under Paladin and Wulder, or falls to Pretender and his forces.


DragonFire is the fourth book in the DragonKeeper Chronicles and continues the high standards set in the previous three books. Award winning author Donita K. Paul has built a complex storyworld for this series, populated with dragons, wizards, kimens, bisonbecks, emerlindians, mordakleeps and knights, just to name a few.  All the characters, from the most powerful wizard to the tinest dragon, have personalities that crackle and snap across the pages. So much so that I really missed some of my favorite characters from the earlier books -- a librarian named Librettowit and the wizard Fenworth. He's a hoot!


Summer 2008 brings the series to a close with DragonLight, the final book in the DragonKeeper Chronicles. While I'm sorry to see this series end, I'm looking forward to visiting Arama and its inhabitants once again.

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