Touched By Venom
Book One of the Dragon Temple Saga
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3.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Like her half-breed mother, young Zarq Darquel can’t always hold her tongue. A peasant on a large dragon estate, she goes unnoticed by the Temple of the Dragon—until she accidentally captures the attention of an eccentric and dangerous dragonmaster, unleashing a storm of tragedy. Her clan is plunged into destitution, her beautiful sister, Waivia, sold into slavery, and her mother lost to madness.
Desperate to find Waivia, Zarq and her delirious mother flee through the underworld of their land. Consumed with the desire for revenge, Zarq develops a taste for the highly addictive venom of the dragons she has been taught to revere—and with this poison, she imbibes their memories and glimpses a plot for social revolution. But to achieve it, she must defy not just sexual taboos and patriarchal conventions, but the Emperor who rules her nation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Malacar, a land with a repressive patriarchal society that both worships and enslaves dragons, Cross's bold debut introduces headstrong nine-year-old Zarq Darquel, who lives a harsh but not completely unpleasant life as a member of the pottery clan on a dragon estate. When destitution forces her father to sell Waisi, Zarq's beautiful older sister, into sexual slavery, her mother, Kavarria, who belongs to the disdained Djimbi race, tries to save Waisi at all costs, but more tragedy follows. Zarq, her life governed by her mother's madness and obsession, eventually winds up as a sexually mutilated nun caring for retired bull dragons. Turning the fantasy clich of the underdog girl who dreams of dragon-mastery into a grim but fascinating coming-of-age tale, Cross scratches only the surface of this richly detailed, well-imagined world. Hints of a plot involving social and religious revolution hold promise for future installments of the Dragon Temple saga.
