The Nyx Duskslayer Chronicles

**The Nyx Duskslayer Chronicles** are a series of YA/NA novels written by **Lark Nightshade**. They follow the adventures of Nyx Duskslayer a young saddler's apprentice turned dragon rider, and his dragon companion Pryderi.

The books are written from a 3rd person perspective and primarily follows Nyx' POV with only a few chapters giving insight into other characters' POV.

The main series contains 6 volumes and one as of yet unpublished 7th and final volume. Additionally the author has written a number of short stories and released some deleted scenes that were cut in the editing process. Additionally, the author has teased a number of standalone spin-off novels set in the same universe, as well as a prequel trilogy meant for an older target audience.

## **Nyx Duskslayer - The Dragon's Vow (Volume 1)**

Nyx Noone, a young saddler's apprentice in service of the royal stables finds a hurt young red dragon in the woods that had been hunted by other dragons and is unable to fly due to how badly his wings are ripped. Nyx patches the wings up with leather.

Dragon introduces himself as Pryderi, is initially wary of Nyx because he works for the evil dragons but ultimately starts trusting him for his kindness. When he is well enough to fly again he takes Nyx with him to the secret fortress of the dragon riders.

Nyx is not immediately received with open arms as the riders suspect him to be a spy for the enemy but one of them, a stern woman named Kysra who has lost her own dragon starts training him.

Nyx and Pryderi begin to form a friendship and a partnership as they are trained by Kysra as dragon and rider.

Nyx learns that Pryderi is the son of Kysra's dragon Seirian. Serian has been captured and is likely being held somewhere but none know where. Pryderi got hurt when he'd flown off on his own to rescue his mother who has been given up by the rest of the riders.

At night Nyx overhears a conversation between Kysra and someone else that reveals they know where Seirion is being held.

He and Pryderi sneak off.

They go on a long adventure quest that nearly fails and Nyx and Pryderi almost die but ultimately succeed in sneaking into the enemy dungeon and rescuing Seirion.

The final battle of the book is between Nyx and the Dusk Knight, the enemy's seemingly indomitable champion. Nyx manages to kill him by sheer luck, winning him the name Duskslayer

Nyx and the two dragons escape and return to the dragon riders

In an epilogue the 'evil' king is revealed to be under a spell and a puppet of the true power behind the throne - the mage Volothras.

## **Nyx Duskslayer - The Rider's Path (Volume 2)**

About 9 months after the first book Nyx and Pryderi prepare to face the trials, the final test to become full members of the dragon rider order

This trial will conclude with a ritual that will forge a permanent bond between their two souls.

Both struggle with their own doubts and concerns, Pryderi feels he cannot live up to the deeds of his parents, and struggles with PTSD from the torture he endured at the hands of Volothras' henchmen. The trauma causes him to have nightmares and violent flashback episodes that in one instance cause him to attack and throw off Nyx mid-flight, nearly killing him.

Nyx worries that the bond will reveal things about him to Pryderi that he wished to bury forever, at the same time he starts to suspect that some of his memories are not entirely real but may have been altered with magic.

At the same time, Volothras, still from the shadows behind the throne, throws the continent into a meaningless war to distract from his (still unrevealed) true purpose.

At the end of the book, after a long and open conversation, Nyx and Pryderi pass the trials but choose not to finish the ritual, and thus forgo initiation into the order. Instead they set out on their own with the blessing of Kysra and Pryderi's parents to seek a legendary magic sword that Nyx has been dreaming of.

This book shows first hints of Nyx having feelings for Pryderi

## **Nyx Duskslayer - The Broken Sword (Volume 3)**

Book starts another 6 months after book 2, the world has been thrown into further chaos by Volothras, the dragon riders can hardly fight him and his dark magic off anymore.

Nyx and Pryderi have gone north in search for the mystical sword. In the icy plains they are attacked by a wild dragon during a snowstorm. A brief fight ensues before the dragon suddenly stops their attack and disappears.

This one is a book full of strange quests and adventures of the two searching for clues

They ultimately find the cave from the dreams but the sword is gone, only the hilt and a shard of the blade remain.

Nyx realises that he's been there before and remembers flashes of a fight in this very cave and the dragon being attacked by multiple mages led by Volothras. In his memory, Nyx remembers trying to get to the dragon and yelling a word over and over again that he does not understand.

The flashback causes an erruption of magic from Nyx who was previously unaware of being able to wield magic at all. The magic causes the cave to collapse and Pryderi only just manages to rescue an unconscius Nyx.

When Nyx comes to, Pryderi tells him that he'd been out for three days, repeating a word over and over again - the draconic word for 'mother'.

## **Nyx Duskslayer - The Traitor's Wrath (Volume 4)**

Starts pretty much right after the previous book.

Nyx is trying to figure out his memories. He decides that he must return home for some answers.

He and Pryderi sneak into Nyx' home town in disguise only to find that Nyx' parents and older sister have fallen victim to the war. Only his older brother Ruan remains who he has never been close to. They reconnect in mourning their parents and Nyx finds out what he'd already suspected - that he had not been his parents' natural child.

He finds his mother's diary which reveals that he had been brought to her when he was four years old by a strange man and paid handsomly to raise him. The man came once a year to assess Nyx and change his memories.

The man is heavily implied to have been Volothras

Nyx and Pryderi head to the dragon riders for answers and find out that Volothras had once been a dragon rider and that he and his dragon Vralien had been in love. They'd disappeared after a battle against the current king's father, thought to have been slain.

When Volothras reemerged as a court mage some years later half the riders believed him to have been enthralled, the other half believed him to have been a traitor all along.

Kysra is revealed as Volothras' sister and shares with Nyx and Pryderi that she believes her brother was corrupted by his own mind alone. That he had been intelligent, cunning, magnificient with magic and fiercely protective of those he loved, but that at the same time he hated being wrong or misunderstood, had a constant need to be on top and to prove himself and that if he felt wronged he could hold a grudge forever.

She also tells Nyx that she had known who he was the moment she'd first met him, not because of the way he looks but because his mannerisms are so much like his fathers'.

Nyx, shocked by this confirmation of his worst fears and the fear of who he might become sneaks out of the fortress by himself.

An epilogue set several weeks later finds him in the middle of a snow storm back in the ice plains, calling for his mother. The book ends with the large shadow of a large dragon appearing from out of the blizzard and loming above him just as he passes out from hypothermia.

## **Nyx Duskslayer - The Final Flight (Volume 5)**

After Nyx' disappearance a month ago Pryderi is unable to find rest. He is trying to come to terms with Nyx needing time but finds that the distance is harder to bear with every passing day.

Kysra determines that Nyx and Pryderi seem to have formed a natural bond without realising and without the aid of a ritual, which is rare but not unheard of. Pryderi, feeling that Nyx is in danger, sets out to find him. Meanwhile Volothras has found the location of the hidden fortress and his armies are marching on the dragon riders.

Nyx, having caught hypothermia (naturally) is caught in a fever dream of flying on the back of a large dragon, safely held in the arms of someone and is unwilling to ever leave his dream. In his dream he hears the dragon calling his name repeatedly and also sees his mother, father and his sister , strangely sitting on the dragon's wings and talking to him. He feels at peace until he hears another voice calling for him which he realises is Pryderi.

He regains consciousness to find Pryderi and a woman he doesn't know but who looks a lot like him leaning over him.

Over the next weeks Nyx recovers and slowly gets to know Vralien.

She tells him about Volothras' greatest secret: that he is terrified of magic, especially his own ever since he accidentally hurt Vralien when they were both still young. This fear has led to him being afraid of every spell he casts, always anticipating a mishap. At the same time he is terrified of other people's magical abilities, the ones that he can control even less than his own. His fear was at times so debilitating, that Vralien eventually had a powerful sword made that would act as a sort of catalyst and help him keep the magic in check.

She reveals that Volothras, while he loved no one more than his son, was devastated and terrified when Nyx had an outburst of wild magic at two years old. He subsequently tried to experiment with ways to suppress his son's abilities.

When Vralien found out about it she took her son and fled but Volothras ultimately found her and was prepared to kill her in order to take Nyx from her. It was that moment that she realised he was too far gone and had been consumed by his fear.

In the fight she was badly wounded and when she woe she found the shattered sword, the crib empty and blood everywhere. Thinking Nyx was dead she went mad with grief and fled north, too numb to even seek revenge.

Nyx doubts himself and shares his own fears of turning out like his father with Vralien, especially because he has no idea how to control his magic. She reasssures him that she does not believe he is bound for that fate as his life and his experiences are much different from the ones Volothras had. She urges him to trust himself and to trust that as wild as his magic might get, there will always be a purpose to it, even if he cannot immediately see it.

She also reminds him that he is only hald Volothras and that the other half is dragon.

When he is not convinced she takes the shards of the sword that had originally ben Volothras' and forges two wristcuffs from it, giving them to Nyx to help control his own magic.

She begins trying to coax out his dragon side by throwing him off her back mid flight or off cliffs but it never works. There is a final moment when Pryderi, who is increasingly unhappy with her methods, only manages to catch Nyx seconds from crashing into the ground.

Furiously, he then flies off with Nyx leaving Vralien behind.

On the way he informs Nyx that he received a message that the fortress is under siege and they are needed.

They arrive just in time for the battle which sees heavy losses on both sides. In the midst of it, Nyx is confronted with his father (who is riding a wyvern) for the first time and the two lock eyes for a moment and then engage in a heavy but fierce battle.

Nyx manages to seemingly wound Volothras mortally and Pryderi kills the wyvern, but not before the wyvern successfully rips through the leather patches on Pryderi's wings.

Pryderi and Nyx spiral towards the ground when Nyx feels a sudden clarity and begins to transform into his draconic form. He manages to grab on to Pryderi and halt their fall just in time.

With Volothras apparently dead, the battle is over. Pryderi's mother and his father's rider are amongst the dead.

The dragon riders are devastated but hopefull. Nyx realises he has lost one of his cuffs.

In an epilogue a badly wounded Volothras enters the throne room limping towards the hunched over figure of the lonely king on his throne.

He tells him that he is sorry but he will have to step out of the shadows now and kills the king. When he leans down to pick up the crown, he is wearing the lost cuff on his wrist.

## **Nyx Duskslayer - The Empty Throne (Volume 6)**

The book starts with Volothras' POV who declares himself regent until a suitable heir can be found.

News reach the dragon riders who feel hopeless and divided. Nyx and Pryderi want to fight on but many others, like Kysra and Pryderi's father have lost faith and would rather grieve in peace and give up.

Angry about this, Nyx and Pryderi leave with some others and decide to take matters into theri own hands. They begin to mobilise the people and start operating from the shadows, sabotaging Volothrass wherever they can.

Nyx learns to utilise his magic and his draconic form

Nyx is captured by Volothras at the end of the book

*(The whole book has been criticised as an anticlimactic filler book, sudden rebellion when there was no mention of it before? Also by now there have been enough hints at a Pryeri/Nyx romance and both having feelings for each other but nothing has been said explicitly yet.)*

## Nyx Duskslayer - Unreleased final Volume - Leaked Title: No One's Crown

The seventh and final book has no release date yet. The author has however confirmed that the prologue will be written from Pryderi's POV.