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The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapters 16–33 Summary
This Sarah A. Parker The Ballad of Falling Dragons chapter summary contains full spoilers.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 16
Outside, Raeve spots Moltenmaws in battle formation over the Citadel. The Tri‑Council is preparing to fight their own people amid the moonfall panic.
As the group moves through the High Treasury, Raeve notices a silver glow leading to a pair of doors. She follows it into a small chamber and walks past deadly runes without realizing it. The rest of the group is stunned that she survived, since those runes were designed to kill anyone who crossed them.
Inside the room, Raeve finds the Book of Voyd, the origin of every rune ever written. Roan says the Tri‑Council sentenced him to death just for trying to look at it and suspects the protective magic for the city’s arches is hidden in its pages.
Raeve decides to steal the book. Kaan is hesitant but agrees, since it may be the only way to save his people. Roan warns that the book has killed or driven mad those who touched it. Raeve wraps it in cloth before lifting it from the pedestal, and Kaan tells her to get out immediately.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 17
Grihm is staying in the tunnels of Gondragh while waiting for a chance to find a Sabersythe egg. A man named Kilíth arrives in a panic with an egg already moving but no nest prepared for it. Grihm lets him use his own nest, and together they bury the egg in fresh magma.
Kilíth warns that a silver Sabersythe has been attacking everyone nearby. When he realizes Grihm plans to sneak into that dragon’s burrow, he tells him he’ll probably die but wishes him luck.
Then, the egg hatches. Grihm gives Kilíth space to bond with the hatchling and heads outside.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 18
The group is trapped inside the Citadel while crowds outside scream to get in. Roan suggests blasting a hole through the wall with a rune but says he needs dragon blood. Kaan is the only one who can provide it since he’s bonded to a dragon.
Raeve worries it’ll drain him, but Kaan insists they have no choice. He cuts his hand to fill a flask, and Roan paints a complex rune on the stone wall. They light an old parchment lark, and Raeve presses it against the rune with her wind magic. The explosion is far bigger and louder than Roan promised. It blows a gap in the wall, but Kaan collapses the moment it goes off.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 19
The group escapes with an unconscious Kaan. Raeve holds off a Tri-Council member with her wind magic before catching up. They nearly reach the distillery when a red dragon corners them. Raeve shields the others from the dragonfire, but someone fires an iron pin at her. The iron cuts off her powers, and the guards charge in.
Kaan wakes and shoves Raeve aside to take the iron pins meant for her. He also pulls the alley walls together and crushes the soldiers. Rygun appears and drags the enemy dragon into the mist. Kaan tells the group to get on Rygun before the army arrives and makes clear he isn’t leaving without his dragon.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 20
The group finds Rygun in a courtyard with a red dragon pinned under his claw. Kaan calms him and gets everyone onto their dragons. Pyrok and Roan ride Maell, who had followed them into the city. Soldiers close in and fire giant spears from siege engines. Kaan orders Rygun to set the courtyard on fire. The blast destroys the weapons and kills the nearby soldiers.
Rygun and Maell lift off into the mist, and they escape. Kaan knows the attack will be seen as a declaration of hostility and that war is now inevitable.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 21
Bharon carries Veya through the freezing sky, but his grip turns ice‑cold, and his wingbeats falter. He won’t make it. As they fall, he shoves Veya into a snowdrift to cushion the impact, but it’s still hard enough to injure her shoulder and make her vomit from the pain.
The Sabersythe comes down nearby, belly‑up and barely alive. Veya tries to crawl toward him but passes out. When she comes to, Bharon is on all fours. Veya and Bharon share a brief, wordless moment of understanding before the wind helps him launch into the air. He flies to a distant moon, curls up, and turns to stone.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 22
Raeve and Kaan fly west on Rygun until a Moltenmaw rider intercepts them and guides them through a magical shield into a hidden mountain town called Beluhn.
Kaan introduces the rider as Chieftess Siharna Farjór. Siharna seems unsettled by Raeve’s name, but Kaan steers the conversation away. Before long, his young cousin Korie runs out to greet him.
Siharna notices that Kaan is injured and tells him to explain. He admits the Tri‑Council is hunting him and that he’s now a fugitive. Siharna still offers him and Raeve refuge while they wait for the Moonplume, promises to increase village patrols, and insists they stay at her family home rather than in a guest hut.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 23
Inside Siharna’s home, Raeve and Kaan hear Korie crying upstairs. Siharna explains that the girl’s pah used to sing her to sleep, and she still hasn’t come to terms with his death. Kaan picks up the pah’s lute and goes upstairs to comfort her. The moment hits Raeve harder than she expects, and she slips outside for air.
Alone in the cold, a buried memory breaks through. Raeve remembers leaving Kaan’s room long ago and sending a parchment lark with a note that should’ve confessed her love for him. Instead, she walked away to protect him. Now, sitting against the stone cliff, she realizes her forgotten past is slowly returning.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 24
Kaan goes to the green wing, which once belonged to his mah, where Pyrok and Roan follow to pull the iron pins from his back. Once settled, Kaan severs his mental connection to his dragon, and the loss of borrowed power leaves him weak.
Raeve returns and sits on the bed. Kaan tells Roan to see to her first. Raeve ignores him, pulls the pin from her own leg, and stitches the wound without flinching. Only after she finishes does Roan remove the pins from Kaan’s back.
As soon as it’s done, Kaan tells Pyrok and Roan to get out.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 25
Kaan calls on Ignos to burn his wounds shut, which makes Pyrok and Roan leave. Alone at last, Raeve cleans the dried blood from his chest and tells him she’ll destroy anyone who tries to take him from her. Kaan understands she’s asking him to stop being reckless with his life, but he tells her he’ll never choose his own survival over hers.
Afterward, Kaan washes the grime from Raeve’s face. The mood between them changes, and when Raeve drops her cloak and pulls his hand toward her, she kisses him.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 26
While they’re intimate, Raeve and Kaan speak openly about what happened that day. Raeve admits how terrified she was when she thought she might lose him. As he helps her with her boots, a blue fragment in the window catches her eye and pulls her into a flashback.
Raeve remembers another man unfastening her boots. In that memory, she feels trapped and disgusted but forces herself to stay still and silent, all the while wishing it were Kaan instead.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 27
Raeve snaps out of her trance to find she’s holding a knife to Kaan’s neck. She tosses it aside and retreats to the washroom. He follows. Raeve asks if Elluin was ever bound to another person, then tells him Elluin loved him with everything she had.
Kaan asks if Raeve’s memories are returning. Raeve says she only caught a vague impression. He knows she’s lying but doesn’t push her. Guiding her back to bed, he holds her close, convinced the message Elluin left was fabricated to protect him. He wonders what she was trying to shield him from.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 28
Trapped in a cell, Kyzari hides a folded parchment lark from her captors and names it Nee. When she finds a piece of bone in her food, she realizes it could be her way out. She breaks it into two pieces with her shackles and files them down against the floor to use as lock picks.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 29
Raeve heads into the village and toward the bridge. Above her, Líri bursts through the clouds and shoots a blast of blue fire at her. Raeve dives behind a large rock just in time. Rygun steps in, catches Líri, and carries her out of the ravine, then guides the Moonplume toward the dens when she tries to dive at Raeve again.
Looking at the shattered bridge, Raeve realizes she’s made a mistake, and now Líri wants her dead.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 30
Raeve steps into the dragon’s den despite warnings. Líri charges, and Kaan yanks Raeve out of the way just in time. He tells her Líri feels abandoned because she left the dragon behind after helping her recover.
Meanwhile, Líri flies to the village island and builds a tall stone roost too high for anyone to reach. Raeve decides she wants Líri to choose her own bond rather than be forced into one and goes to find food and gear for the task ahead.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 31
Raeve digs through a pile of borrowed boots for her climb up Líri’s stone pillar. Kaan warns her that taming an adult dragon can take a serious psychological toll since it forces the rider to confront their darkest memories, but she isn’t worried. None of the options fit, so Kaan returns with a pair of his late mah’s old climbing boots instead. Raeve decides those will do.
Before the climb, Raeve makes Kaan promise to stay out of it if the bonding goes sideways. He agrees but only if she lets him cook her a proper meal first. Once he leaves, the weight of everything hits him, and he gets sick in the snow outside.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 32
Arkyn hosts a high‑ranking official named Einar at his battle arena. Einar makes it clear that the Tri‑Council doesn’t see Arkyn as a legitimate leader and plans to back the twins, Tyroth and Cadok, as the region’s future rulers.
Soon after, a message arrives for Einar saying that a major disaster is coming and Kaan has been declared an outlaw. Arkyn already knows and has been using his fortress to promise safety to anyone who pledges loyalty to him. Einar says the Council plans to use Kaan’s outlaw status as an excuse to send the twins after him, with the northern mines as their reward.
Arkyn proposes a deal. He’ll kill Kaan publicly in the battle pit in exchange for the Tri‑Council’s recognition as rightful king. The northern resources are theirs to keep. Einar agrees.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons Chapter 33
Raeve prepares to scale the stone column where Líri is roosting. Before she starts, Kaan uses his magic to form a bridge out of river clay so she can cross the water and reach the base. She climbs to the top and finds Líri deep in sleep. Near the summit, a rock breaks off under her foot, but she reaches the platform.
Líri eventually wakes and bolts into the air. Raeve jumps, slams onto the dragon’s back, and grabs a rope. She struggles to reach the straps holding the saddle in place but finally unhooks the buckles and tells Líri she’s free. The saddle comes loose, and Raeve drops into the clouds below.