Calling the Dragons Home — Aurelia T. Evans

The State laws ensure peace, but at the price of passion. How can a figurehead Queen and a simple magician bring magic and passion back? Syra is Queen of the State, bound like every citizen by the Edicts of Detan - laws that ensure peace, but at the price of passion. Every aspect of life is controlled by these laws, encouraging moderation and repressing any excess of emotion. Magic, too, is forbidden except for simple parlor tricks. The court magician, Gilian, reveals to her in secret that the State was once Dragonsong - a land of dragons and full of magic. The dragons were exiled and disappeared, and the magic was wiped out of the State, and with them all the accompanying pains and pleasures that make life worth living. Syra realises that the State has lasted too long in its lifeless existence; an existence that she knows is not enough. With the help of Gilian, she vows to break free from the stifling State and rediscover the magic of passion in order to call the dragons home and resurrect Dragonsong.