The state of Wels is going through difficult times after the Great Troubles and bloody civil strife. The time when combat magic and dragon flames almost destroyed the world. Now, under pain of death, any magic is forbidden, dragons have disappeared without a trace, and most of the magicians have been executed or expelled. But years pass - and with a weak ruler, secret societies raise their heads, an enemy unaware of pity approaches the borders, and the few surviving magicians are preparing to hold the Rite of Vocation, returning the dragons to this world. A new war is coming in the country that has risen from the ashes, more terrible than all the previous ones... The first book of the new cycle "The Crown and Dragons." Epic fantasy in the best tradition of George RR Martin and Joe Abercrombie.