Dragons and Demons recap

After surviving an attempted poisoning, Rezkin accepts Gendishen's crown and sets out to recover Tam. Hidden spirit people identify him as a human-born spiritua whose growing power may eventually drive him mad. He rescues Tam from an Asshaian quarry, heals his damaged mind, and appoints him to command Gendishen's eastern forces. Frisha is secretly kidnapped and replaced by a clay double, then imprisoned with Prince Thresson. Wesson survives the fall of the Asshaian mage academy, unites the mages at Benbrick, and learns that he was fused with a demon before birth. Rezkin builds support among animal-shifting tribes and joins the rebels at Garton Knoll. Wesson kills Battle Master Rhone, while Rezkin wounds the Sen and forces King Caydean through a magical pathway. Its collapse leaves Rezkin motionless and declared dead. The rebels win and Tieran becomes emperor, but Caydean and the Sen remain at large, Frisha and Thresson remain captive, and the possibility of restoring Rezkin is unresolved.

Previously: Rezkin has become a ruler and the central opponent of King Caydean of Asshai. His allies include Frisha, Tieran Nirius, the strikers Kai and Farson, the journeyman mage Wesson, and his close friend Tam. Prince Thresson remains missing amid the struggle over Asshai's succession. Rezkin's actions have unsettled several kingdoms, and his earlier bargains with ancient beings carry obligations that are not yet fully understood. The conflict has also drawn in demons and unusual magic. As this volume begins, Caydean remains a threat, Tam is absent, and Rezkin's companions are divided among several urgent missions.

Rezkin awakens after a week-long poisoning, but the attacker and toxin remain unknown. He accepts that Frisha and Tieran are now together. Two identical versions of a companion are determined to be equally real people, and Rezkin frees them with different wrist marks. Tam is enslaved in a quarry, chained to another prisoner and suffering from a worsening magical injury to his mind. Rezkin nevertheless acquires a new responsibility when Gendishen's delegates offer him their crown. He accepts, survives an attack during the signing, and gives Wesson a future mandate to end the kingdom's persecution of mages. Wesson plans to seek support within Asshai. Rezkin then leaves to rescue Tam, but two powerful point-eared strangers seize him and his mage companion. They take both through a hostile magical passage to a hidden forest, identify Rezkin's power as spiritua, and warn that the stone he carries suppresses him and may kill him. The rescue is now delayed while Rezkin remains in their custody.

The hidden people determine that Rezkin is a human-born spiritua with access to the full range of their power. They warn that people like him have historically become violently mad, while his emotional suppression has limited both his abilities and that danger. His pendant drains his strength, and his earlier bargain may obligate the hidden people themselves to participate in the coming demon war. The council finds Rezkin sane for the present but assigns the spirit leader to train and monitor him, with authority to kill him if madness appears. The spirit general joins them as pathmaker despite distrusting him. Meanwhile, Tam remains chained in the quarry and is injured in repeated attacks. Stone-bodied ancient beings bound by Rezkin's bargain protect him and offer an escape route. Tam delays leaving because he intends to organize the enslaved workers, and the apparent intervention of the stone begins attracting followers. Conflicting reports place him either on the Isle of Sand or in southern Veril, so Rezkin sends Reaylin toward the island and travels with his new companions toward Veril.

Rezkin's party survives a dragon attack and avalanche while crossing the mountains. His inability to heal the wounded spirit leader exposes how strongly his emotional training constrains spiritua magic. The group learns that a long-missing elder may know how to prevent Rezkin's eventual madness. The spirit leader also identifies Wesson as a human and demon joined in one being, though Rezkin refuses to act against him on that assessment alone. Elsewhere, Wesson continues toward Asshai's mage academies and sinks one pursuing ship and cripples two others with a large-scale attack, leaving him deeply troubled by the deaths. Rezkin detours to besieged Gage after learning that quarry captives may include Tam. He breaks the siege leadership, frees a juvenile dragon intended for demon possession, and leaves the Sen behind at large. At the same time, Frisha is abducted. Her captors create a clay double with her appearance and voice, instruct it to remain near Tieran and Rezkin, and send the real Frisha away in captivity. Her allies do not yet know that the substitution occurred.

Tam's apparent protection by the quarry stone draws nearly thirty prisoners into his escape plan. Rezkin enters the quarry disguised as a new slave, locates Tam and Uthe, and learns that an ancient being has slowed the deterioration of Tam's wounded mind. Concern for Tam gives Rezkin the emotional connection needed to heal him. He closes the injury, frees both men from their enchanted chain, and helps the organized prisoners break out through the mines. With the quarry escape complete, Rezkin offers the survivors a place in Gendishen's forces under Tam. He appoints Tam as eastern general, swordbearer, magistrate, and governor, entrusting him with both authority and a royal blade. Tam remains with the freed prisoners while Rezkin turns toward Asshai. Wesson reaches the mage academy seeking support against Caydean, but its archmage argues for neutrality because the battle-mage academy already supports the king. Her account of Rezkin's rise unsettles Wesson and makes him question whether his loyalty has been manipulated.

Caydean's forces assault the neutral mage academy with battle mages and demon-possessed attackers. Wesson helps evacuate survivors, but the king's adviser kills the archmage and the academy falls. Wesson escapes and heads west toward the rebellion. Rezkin's party, meanwhile, seeks the missing elder who might know how to prevent spiritua madness. They encounter animal-shifting tribes divided by a long war. Rezkin offers valuable supplies needed for shifting in exchange for aid against demons. During the search for the great wolf, he saves the wolf-shifting daughter of the leopard leaders from lethal venom, accidentally forming a dependent bond. He later reshapes it into a non-romantic connection and the two agree to friendship. The great wolf, an ancient pointed-eared person fixed in wolf form, agrees to oppose the demons and leads them to the lion tribe. Its pointed-eared leader admits that he caused the tribal war by murdering children and blaming rival tribes. He is taken into custody, but gives no usable answer to Rezkin's condition. The great wolf and hawk tribe nevertheless bring a wider alliance closer.

Rezkin sends Tam and the former quarry prisoners toward Kyle and Gendishen, then changes course when Wesson reports that a large royal army is approaching Benbrick. Wesson returns to his childhood home, reunites with his mother, and learns that his stepfather serves the rebellion led by Reaylin's father, Peyton DeVos. Frisha awakens in a rune-protected prison and finds Prince Thresson, alive after nearly two years of captivity. At Benbrick, Wesson's former master endorses him, most local mages accept his leadership, and Wesson formally takes mage rank. The spirit people then confirm that Wesson was fused with a demon before birth, when his father diverted the being intended for Caydean. They conclude that Caydean is both demon-possessed and a human-born spiritua. Rezkin joins Peyton's rebels at Garton Knoll without waiting for foreign allies. He intercepts a warning intended for Caydean's army and kills the spies who sent it. He and the spirit general acknowledge mutual feeling, but he withdraws from intimacy. The ambush is prepared against contingents led by Battle Master Rhone and the Sen.

King Caydean visits Frisha and Prince Thresson in prison and reveals that Rezkin is their younger brother. At Garton Knoll, the rebels spring their ambush against royal soldiers, mages, battle mages, and demon-controlled creatures. Wesson isolates Battle Master Rhone and uses his destructive power in a controlled strike to kill him. The Sen opens a magical pathway from the ruins. The bonded wolf-shifter attacks him, but he drains her strength before Rezkin wounds him and the ground collapses. Caydean emerges through the pathway and releases demonic power that overwhelms fighters across the field and blocks Rezkin's own abilities. Rezkin recovers enough control to force Caydean back through the passage, then collapses as the device and demonic energy surge through him. The pathway closes, Caydean's location becomes unknown, and the spirit leader declares Rezkin dead. With Rhone, Caydean, and the Sen gone from the battle, the rebels win and the surviving royal troops retreat. The Sen's body is not found, leaving open the possibility that he escaped and might restore Rezkin. Farson orders Rezkin buried at Garton Knoll, and Tieran becomes emperor while Frisha and Thresson remain captive.

At Garton Knoll, the rebels defeat King Caydean's two contingents after Wesson kills Battle Master Rhone and the Sen is removed from the fighting. The Sen escapes the collapsed ruins after opening a pathway. Caydean comes through that passage, but Rezkin forces him back into it before the device collapses. The surge of pathway energy and demonic force leaves Rezkin motionless, and the spirit leader declares him dead. Farson chooses to bury him at Garton Knoll, while Tieran assumes the title of emperor. Tam is alive and travelling with the freed quarry prisoners toward Kyle and his new eastern command in Gendishen. Wesson, Kai, Farson, Reaylin, the spirit companions, and the bonded wolf-shifter survive the battle. Frisha and Prince Thresson remain together in an unknown rune-protected prison. Caydean's destination is unknown, and the missing Sen may possess knowledge capable of restoring Rezkin, leaving Rezkin's death uncertain. The demon threat, pathway technology, fragile alliance of shifting tribes, and danger attached to spiritua power all remain active concerns.