The author creates a fantasy about the extinction of the dragons from their foes. Firedrake, the youngest dragon, must leave the northern valley on the advice of the eldest dragon if the dragon race is to be saved. Sorrel, the brownie, an orphaned Scottish boy who becomes the dragon rider and Twigleg, a homunculus, who keeps trying to read the map, accompanies Firedrake. Firedrake must return to the Hidden City in the Himalayas or suffer discovery and destruction by the humans.

English language arts grade 6 (2009).