Robert N. Charrette

TRUE LEADERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN…

A flash of steel, a thin crimson line, and a foamy gurgle of confusion marked the beginning of Takashi's rule, and the passing of Theodore's grandfather.

Theodore Kurita is the son of Takashi Kurita, and heir apparent to the Draconis Combine, one of the most powerful realms of the Inner Sphere. But the House of the Dragon has never been a place of smooth transitions. Historically, a Kurita proves himself a fit leader by a successful bid for power, political or...otherwise.

Theodore's perilous journey is a twenty-year odyssey beginning with his graduation from Sun Zhang Military Academy. At each level of ascendancy, Theodore finds that keeping power is far more difficult than getting it, and failure lies in wait at every turn. His tactical knowledge is put to the test all too many times. His successes in impossible situations are dismissed as smoke and mirror trickery by some, but lauded as genius by others.

Upon becoming Lord of the Combine Military, his new power allows him to see the uncertain future of his people. Theodore must step carefully as he bargains for his future with the mystic sect ComStar and the Yakuza, an interstellar network of organized crime. And all the while maintaining an uneasy truce with the man whom he must one day depose—his father, Coordinator of the Draconis Combine!