The Rite

The Rite is the second book in The Year of Rogue Dragons by Richard Lee Byers.

"Rampaging dragons appear in more and more places every day. And if the soulless lich Sammaster gets his way—and there's every reason to suspect he will—the disaster has only just begun.

But then all the dragons have to do to avoid the madness that drives them to kill is trade their immortal souls for an eternity of undeath.

The knowledge of that unavoidable truth may cause more madness among the dragons of Faerûn than the curse itself. For the dragonslayer Dorn, a dragon is a dragon whether or not it has skin. But what if it wears the skin of a woman he may just be falling in love with?

It's shaping up to be a difficult year for Dorn and his companions, a year that will bring all of Faerûn to the edge of cataclysm. The Year of Rogue Dragons rages on."

Summary
Continuing their quest, Dorn Graybrook, Karasendrieth, Chatulio, Pavel Shemov, Will Turnstone, Jivex, Taegan Nightwind and Raryn Snowstealer split up to better search for clues on how to stop Sammaster, who has brought hordes of goblinoids out of Vaasa in an attack on Damara to slow down any such searches with the aid of infiltrated cultists. Meanwhile, other mages of the Cult of the Dragon have stolen the soul of Gareth Dragonsbane while he rides out to slay rage-maddened wyrms.

Dorn, Raryn, Chatulio and Kara head for the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, finding it under attack by a draconic force led by Malazan, a red bloodscaled fury currently serving Sammaster. Dorn and Raryn reinforce and guide the monks to buy time for Kara's research while Chatulio, feeling he is about to succumb to the rage, abandons the monastery and infiltrates the enemy force. He manages to sow enough dissent that Malazan slays one of her lieutenants, a green hidecarved dragon named Ishenalyr, but soon succumbs to the Rage himself, and is killed in the camp.

Taegan and Jivex go to Thentia instead, to provide as much help as possible to Firefingers and the team of mages working on deciphering Sammaster's notes. As one of the dragons helping them succumbs suddenly to the rage, they recognize the spell that aggravates the dracorage, and realize they have an infiltrator. As Taegan interviews Rilitar Shadow-water, they come under attack from a sorcerous chasme. Even as Rilitar and Taegan begin to bond, they fail to rout the fiend after repeated assaults or even discern the infiltrator; the chasme finally captures Taegan and Jivex, who become mind-controlled by an infiltrator, posing as Darvin Kordeion.

Will and Pavel head for Thar, where they briefly make common cause with an ogre chieftain, Yagoth. He guides them to the place they seek, but betrays them after the lot of them slay Sammaster's guardians, several squamous spewers. He captures Pavel; Will narrowly escapes, but manages to draw several green dragons in the throes of the Rage to create a distraction sufficient to rescue Will, slaying Yagoth in their escape. They're rescued from orcs by Brimstone.

Just at the verge of succumbing, Kara successfully manages to glean out a form of Sammaster's spell to abate dracorage. Dorn accompanies her to meet with Lareth, in a sanctuary set up by Nexus. The King of Justice and all goodly dragons means to kill her as soon as he realizes, and only the challenge of his underling, Tamarand, manages to save Kara. Tamarand slays Lareth and becomes the new King of Justice, sending out a flight of dragons to root the attackers out of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose.

Just before Taegan and Jivex incite the rage in another dragon, Rilitar Shadow-Water thwarts the magic holding them thrall. Jivex attempts to take revenge on Darvin, but Taegan realizes the actual infiltrator is Phourkyn One-Eye, who reveals himself to be a sorcerous sunwyrm who has bonded the chasme to his own heart. After a long battle, they manage to slay the sunwyrm, though Rilitar perishes from his wounds not long after.

Brimstone asks Pavel to intercede on his behalf before Queen Christine Dragonsbane of Damara; they agree to let Brimstone help them release the soul of Gareth Dragonsbane from the Plane of Shadow. Slaying two shadow dragons, Brimstone, Celadon Kierney and Pavel complete a rite to free the King's soul from its prison, and return to the Prime. Finally, Gareth agrees to a last gambit with Brimstone, who pretends to be the steed of Zhengyi, whom Sammaster has impersonated, so that Gareth can slay him in plain sight of the Vaasan horde. This breaks the fighting spirit of the goblinoid hordes, and they rout.

Index

 * Characters


 * Locations


 * Creatures


 * Magic
 * Spells
 * Items
 * Others
 * Others
 * Others


 * Fauna


 * Flora


 * Organizations


 * Religions


 * Races


 * Food and drink


 * Weapons


 * Musical Instruments


 * Clothing and armor


 * Material


 * Miscellaneous