The Order of the Dragon – Book One unfolds in 15th-century Europe, terrorized by brutal wars, cursed by superstition, and divided by religion during the lifetime of Prince Vlad of Wallachia. He struggles to master his destiny and govern the fate of his homeland. As a younger son raised within royal courts, Vlad lingers in the shadow of others. Until, alongside the capricious Luxembourg king of Hungary, Zsigmond, Vlad gains a knighthood and a new sobriquet, Dracul, meaning the dragon or the devil. His family, friends, lovers, and enemies know him as both.
In a journey from the land of his birth to the decadent and dangerous royal court at Buda Castle, across Europe's oldest medieval cities and fields of carnage, Vlad Dracul must survive the path to power. A bloody road mired in warfare and savagery, littered with more than the corpses of his Turkish enemies. Strange creatures haunt his imagination and his battlefield encounters. Deceit and betrayal dictate the course of old friendships and holy alliances. Discover the sacrifices Vlad Dracul makes in pursuit of his goal; the preservation of his family and Christendom's borders. Read Order of the Dragon – Book One, the first in a series of novels about the real Dracula family, the House of Basarab.