The Tyrant's Law (Dagger and the Coin)

dragons clinging to the frozen ports of the north. Their foul and aggressive temper is not a sign that they were bred for war, but that an animal let loose without its master will revert to its bestial nature. While they are large as the Yemmu, this is due to the rolls of insulating fat that protect them from the cold north. The facial tattooing has been compared to the Kurtadam ritual beads by those who clearly understand neither.
    The Southlings, known for their great black night-adapted eyes, are a study in perversion. Littering the reaches south of Lyoneia, they have built up a culture equal parts termite hill and nomadic tribe worship. While capable of sexual reproduction, these wide-eyed half-humans prefer to delegate such activity to a central queen figure, with her subjects acting as drones. Whether they were bred to people the living deserts of the south or migrated there after the fall of dragons because they were unable to compete with the greater races is a fit subject of debate.
    The Drowned are the final evidence of the decadence of the dragons. While much like the Firstblood in size and shape, the Drowned live exclusively underwater in all human climes. Interaction with them is slow when it is possible, and their tendency to gather in shallow tidepools marks them as little better than human seaweed. Suggestions that they are tools created toward some great draconic project still in play under the waves is purest romance.
    With this as a grounding, we can address the five philosophical practices that determine how an educated mind orders, ranks, and ultimately judges the races …

Acknowledgments
    I would like to thank my agents Shawna McCarthy and Danny Baror for their support in this project and for hooking me up with the amazing team at Orbit. Particularly, I owe debts of gratitude to Tom Bouman for his editorial wisdom, Alex Lencicki and Ellen Wright for their help in navigating the strange tides of promotion, and Tim Holman for giving me a port when things were stormy.
    Also and always, I would like to thank my family for supporting me when things were scarce and helping me through the hard parts.
    The errors and infelicities are, of course, my own.