The Little Dragons by Rowan Starsmith

Once the People of the Land had an Agreement with the Dragons, negotiated by the Order of Dragon Priestesses through their Familiars, the Little Dragons. Everything changed, however, when the King’s People came. The Kings knew only the way of the sword. They carved the land into warring Realms and tried to kill off the Dragons, including their smaller cousins. They saw the Priestesses dedicated to the Dragons’ care as evil and murdered them as well. Angry and hungry, the Dragons struck back. Now both peoples live their lives at night, by the light of lanterns and torches. In the daytime, they must shut themselves and their livestock into their homes, be it a tiny cabin in the wilderness of the Northlands or a Castle in the midst of one of the King’s capital cities.Both peoples search for a solution in their own way. The Healing Order, which barely survived the Kings’ conquest and the terror of the Dragons, investigates the old rumours claiming that the Healers who sheltered fleeing Dragon Priestesses recorded their secrets. A young generation of Princes, armed with new weapons, wants their turn to make war upon the Dragons. An aging King schemes to consolidate his power while struggling with his secret fear that warring with the Dragons is just a way to give them a feast of dead soldiers. Meanwhile his Queen sends their daughter to an elderly Healer, sure the girl is pregnant despite her insistence that she has never lain with a man. A young woman who desperately wants to apprentice as a Healer is forced to become her Teacher’s servant. A newly dedicated Healer worries about who will care for his beloved elderly Teacher when his Apprenticeship ends, and a pair of young servants in the Women’s Retreat House follow their contrasting dreams.The fates of these very different people entwine in surprising ways as, one after another, they are drawn into the search for the Little Dragons.