rights@entangledpublishing.com
Red Tower Books is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com
Edited by Liz Pelletier
Cover art and design by Bree Archer and Elizabeth Turner Stokes
Stock art by Peratek/Shutterstock
Interior map art by Amy Acosta and Elizabeth Turner Stokes
Interior endpaper map art by Melanie Korte
Interior design by Toni Kerr
HC ISBN 978-1-64937-404-2
Ebook ISBN 978-1-64937-408-0
Printed in China
First Edition May 2023
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
More from Rebecca Yarros
The Things We Leave Unfinished
Fourth Wing is a nonstop-thrilling adventure fantasy set in the brutal and competitive world of a military college for dragon riders, which includes elements regarding war, battle, hand-to-hand combat, perilous situations, blood, intense violence, brutal injuries, death, poisoning, graphic language, and sexual activities that are shown on the page. Readers who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note, and prepare to enter Basgiath War College...
To Aaron.
My own Captain America.
Through the deployments, the moves,
the sunniest highs, and the darkest lows,
it’s always been you and me, kiddo.
Here’s to the artists.
You hold the power to shape the world.
The following text has been faithfully transcribed from Navarrian into the modern language by Jesinia Neilwart, Curator of the Scribe Quadrant at Basgiath War College. All events are true, and names have been preserved to honor the courage of those fallen. May their souls be commended to Malek.
A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.
—Article One, Section One
The Dragon Rider’s Codex
CHAPTER
ONE
Conscription Day is always the deadliest. Maybe that’s why the sunrise is especially beautiful this morning—because I know it might be my last.
I tighten the straps of my heavy canvas rucksack and trudge up the wide staircase of the stone fortress I call home. My chest heaves with exertion, my lungs burning by the time I reach the stone corridor leading to General Sorrengail’s office. This is what six months of intense physical training has given me—the ability to barely climb six flights of stairs with a thirty-pound pack.
I’m so fucked.
The thousands of twenty-year-olds waiting outside the gate to enter their chosen quadrant for service are the smartest and strongest in Navarre. Hundreds of them have been preparing for the Riders Quadrant, the chance to become one of the elite, since birth. I’ve had exactly six months.
The expressionless guards lining the wide hallway at the top of the landing avoid my eyes as I pass, but that’s nothing new. Besides, being ignored is the best possible scenario for me.
Basgiath War College isn’t known for being kind to…well, anyone, even those of us whose mothers are in command.
Every Navarrian officer, whether they choose to be schooled as healers, scribes, infantry, or riders, is molded within these cruel walls over three years, honed into weapons to secure our mountainous borders from the violent invasion attempts of the kingdom of Poromiel and their gryphon riders. The weak don’t survive here, especially not in the Riders Quadrant. The dragons make sure of that.
“You’re sending her to die!” a familiar voice thunders through the general’s thick wooden door, and I gasp. There’s only one woman on the Continent foolish enough to raise her voice to the general, but she’s supposed to be on the border with the Eastern Wing. Mira.
There’s a muffled response from the office, and I reach for the door handle.
“She doesn’t stand a chance,” Mira shouts as I force the heavy door open and the weight of my pack shifts forward, nearly taking me down. Shit.
The general curses from behind her desk, and I grab onto the back of the crimson-upholstered couch to catch my balance.
“Damn it, Mom, she can’t even handle her rucksack,” Mira snaps, rushing to my side.
“I’m fine!” My cheeks heat with mortification, and I force myself upright. She’s been back for five minutes and is already trying to save me. Because you need saving, you fool.
I don’t want this. I don’t want any part of this Riders Quadrant shit. It’s not like I have a death wish. I would have been better off failing the admission test to Basgiath and going straight to the army with the majority of conscripts. But I can handle my rucksack, and I will handle myself.
The story follows Violet Sorrengail, a young woman who, despite her fragile appearance and scholarly background, is forced to join the dangerous ranks of dragon riders. Her mother, a powerful general, insists on Violet’s participation, throwing her into a brutal competition where survival is anything but guaranteed.
