Zarq Darquel's trial by fire begins when she undergoes the rigorous training required of an apprentice dragonmaster-while struggling to cope with her addiction to the hallucinogenic dragon venom, and her desire to learn the secrets of the dragons themselves.

### From Publishers Weekly

In unflinching detail, the horrific second installment in Cross's controversial Dragon Temple trilogy (after *Touched by Venom*) chronicles 17-year-old Zarq's struggles to attain her destiny as the Skykeeper's Daughter. Zarq faces the oppression of a brutal Taliban-like theocratic dictatorship and her own addiction to dragon venom as she undergoes a brutal apprenticeship to the Dragonmaster of Clutch Re. Zarq hopes to change her oppressive patriarchal society by becoming a dragonmaster herself, despite the violent opposition she faces—and the demands of her dead mother's dragon "haunt" to search for her long-lost sister, Waivia, instead of completing the apprenticeship. Cross's anguished protagonist faces grim issues that might make some fantasy enthusiasts uncomfortable—addiction, genital mutilation, rape, slavery, racism, bestiality and prostitution, to name a few. Warning: these are not McCaffrey dragons. Think X-rated Tolkien set in the Middle East. *(Aug.)*
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### About the Author

Janine Cross has published short fiction in various Canadian magazines and was nominated for an Aurora Award in 2002. Her non-speculative fiction has appeared in newspapers and a local anthology *Shorelines*. She has also published a literary novel.