The Dragon Quintet

Book excerpt: Brand-new contributions to the hoard of dragon lore by five top fantasy authors. Orson Scott Card's "In the Dragon's House" is a gothic yarn about the mysterious dragon that lives in the wiring of an old house, noticed by a young boy who shares its body in dreams and feels its true size and power. Mercedes Lackey's "Joust" tells the story of a slave boy who is chosen to care for a warrior's dragon--a dragon whose secrets may be the key to his freedom. Tanith Lee's "Love in a Time of Dragons" is a fable is imbued with her signature atmosphere--Old World, moody, erotic--as a kitchen maid goes a-questing with a handsome champion to slay the local drakkor. Elizabeth Moon's "Judgment" tells the tale of a young man forced by lies to flee his village . . . into an adventure of dwarfs and dragonspawn. Michael Swanwick's "King Dragon" invokes a truly sinister and repellent creature--a being with the soul of a beast and the body of a machine--part metal, part devil . . . all merciless.