Runaway: Book Two of the Flight Series

Runaway: Book Two of the Flight Series by Dawn Meredith (Self Published), RRP $31.08 Young Adult ISBN 9-798303-573949

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

Think the warring factions in Lord of the Rings battling it out for supremacy – these were the images that came to mind reading the fantasy novel Runaway, the second instalment in Dawn Meredith’s Flight trilogy.

Runaway is set in Avendor post the uprising from the Dragonkind, the original inhabitants of Avendor, against the oppression by the Meers. The heroine from that war – the subject of book one in the trilogy – is Sye: a small, lithe Dragonkind girl who was able to stop that war through her power to call on the sun – a power that came as a complete surprise and which still bewilders her.

Dragonkind and Meer are now living alongside each other as part of the Mingling, overseen by a new Queen, Gathena. Gathena is of Dragonkind, but her estranged husband is a Meer and she has a genuine vision that the two races can live in harmony. That’s not a vision shared by all the citizens and it’s a vision deplored by a cunning Meer girl, Rizer Shard. Rizer is plotting to overthrow Gathena by weaselling her way into Gathena’s inner circle through her feigned displays of charm and flattery.

On the other hand, Gathena and Sye have formed a close and genuine bond, with Gathena becoming Sye’s foster mother after the death of Sye’s mother in book one. Sye’s mother was driven crazy by a long-standing and uncontrollable voice in her head – a voice which has now transferred into Sye’s mind. But Sye isn’t going crazy. The voice is real and belongs to the black dragon, Ballickh Ry – the last of his kind. Sye and Ballickh Ry are able to communicate with each other through their thoughts, and Ballickh Rye is ordering Sye on a mission.

Sye refuses to take orders from the black dragon, but there is something compelling her to undertake the long and arduous trip to the frozen north with him. There they encounter Alythed, the old and weakened queen of the ice dragons. Alythed has just birthed an egglet, fathered by one of the two other remaining dragons of her species, Gryfick and Frith. Sye discovers the motive for their mission is for Ballickh Ry to mate with Alythed, but Alythed won’t have a bar of the disgusting black species diluting her bloodline. Defeated, Ballickh Ry flies off, leaving Sye stranded without a means of returning to Avendor. But through Sye’s touch of her egglet, Alythed discovers Sye’s special bond with Ballickh Ry and her own unborn child. This sways Alythed’s earlier position and she gifts her egglet to Sye’s protection with her blessing for Ballickh Ry to mate with her daughter after she hatches and matures.

Gryfick and Frith fly Sye back to Avendor, but there she encounters a new uprising being led by Rizer Shard. Rizer has built an underground army and is in control of an ancient weapon that will prove fatal to the dragons. What ensues is an almighty battle, a revelation for Sye as to the true purpose of her sun powers and plenty of scope for a plotline for book three.

I can’t imagine the time and attention to detail that has gone into crafting this novel and the trilogy as a whole. The story contains a plethora of characters and subplots, and each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view. I did need to revisit chapters between readings to check who had done what to whom, but at the same time this style of storytelling gave me insight into the various motivations that were on the go and had me turning the pages to see how Rizer’s conspiracy and Sye’s journey would transpire.