Author’s note AQUILA is the prequel to the bestselling epic fantasy book BATTLE MAGE. Although the events in this book take place earlier, it is ‘highly’ recommended that people read Battle Mage first. The Story For years, Aquila Danté has been fighting the Possessed with his dragon, Calon Tân. Together with the human armies they are holding the legions of hell at bay. But when a battle mage goes missing, Aquila and Tân encounter a new and terrifying demon known as Caim, The Cleaver of Souls. Even as Aquila battles Caim, his wife is giving birth to their son, but fate deals a heavy blow, and Aquila begins a new battle against tragedy, grief and the endless machinations of the magi. And all the while, the scales of his beloved dragon grow darker. Calon Tân will soon turn black, and as everyone knows, black dragons are the enemy of humankind; black dragons are mad. As Aquila and Tân fight to keep the madness at bay, another child is born in the Forsaken Lands of Beltane. Daughter to a healer and a failed battle mage, this child must survive years of danger and hardship. Only then will she receive her tribal name and ignite a spark of hope. Meanwhile, Captain Mathilda Steinhardt wages war with her bodyguard of knights and an orphaned youth who has the potential to become a great knight if only he can stop joking around. And all the while, a captured battle mage writhes in agony while a novice mage descends into darkness as he seeks answers from a mysterious individual known only as the Sinner. Heroes fall, and new heroes rise in the epic tale of Aquila, a battle mage who sows the seeds of victory even as his own tragic fate is sealed.