The Dragon Lord

"MADE ME WANT TO CHEER."
—Harlan Ellison

Arthur, warlord of Britain, has forged a mercenary army more savage and terrible than the Saxon barbarians who have invaded his island. Victory isn't enough: now Arthur wants to annihilate the Saxons by becoming The Dragon Lord.

Mael and Starkad, an Irish adventurer and his giant Danish companion, are peerless warriors in a warrior age; men who have fought all across Europe for survival and pay—and always for each other. Now they must seek an ancient skull from which Merlin's wizardry can raise a dragon, and also the weapons by which alone the dragon can be controlled.

Accompanied by a priestess older than time, their search takes them from a monster-haunted lake, to the barrow of a thing no longer dead, and to a battlefield where the enmity of Briton and Saxon rises to a cataclysm which drowns the earth in blood.

Yet one task remains. The fiery breath of the dragon Mael and Starkad have helped create can sweep the land clear of all life if it ever escapes from Merlin's control.

And the dragon is about to escape!

Cover Art by Charles Keegan

Paperback
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, September 1998

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-87890-0
ISBN-10: 0-671-87890-5

Copyright© 1979 by David Drake

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

To Karl Edward Wagner—

Excellent friend, excellent writer, and an excellent inspiration for a would-be novelist.
"Yet, be warned; call not to you that
which you may neither hold nor forbid."

Baen Books by David Drake

Hammer's Slammers

The Tank Lords
Caught in the Crossfire
The Butcher's Bill (forthcoming)
The Sharp End

Independent Novels and Collections

The Dragon Lord
Redliners
Starliner
Ranks of Bronze
Lacey and His Friends
Old Nathan
Mark II: The Military Dimension
All the Way to the Gallows

The Belisarian series (with Eric Flint)

An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness

The General series (with S.M. Stirling)

The Forge
The Hammer
The Anvil
The Steel
The Sword
The Chosen

The Undesired Princess and the Enchanted Bunny
(with L. Sprague de Camp)
Lest Darkness Fall and To Bring the Light
(with L. Sprague de Camp)
An Honorable Defense
(with Thomas T. Thomas)
Enemy of My Enemy
(with Ben Ohlander)