Will she be chosen, or destroyed?
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn tells the tale of sixteen-year-old Eona, masquerading as twelve-year-old Eon. In the Empire of the Celestial Dragons , inspired by the history and cultures of China and Japan, twelve dragons representing the twelve-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac are connected to human apprentices. When a dragon is ascendant in the year it represents, it chooses its apprentice from twelve boys, each twelve years old, born in its year. Women are not allowed to partake of the magic of the dragons because it is believed that they would taint it. Any woman caught using the dragon magic is put to death.There are currently two books in the series, Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and Eona: The Last Dragoneye (also known as The Necklace of the Gods).
This work provides examples of:
- Ambition Is Evil: The Rat Dragon is the keeper of ambition. Guess which Dragoneye is Obviously Evil?
- Arc Number: Twelve. There are 12 dragons, 12 pearls on the folio strings, and 12 Dragoneyes.
- Easily Forgiven: Very much subverted. After being the villain of the first book but having compassion pushed into his heart, Lord Ido turns out to be vital to Eona's survival, as she needs him to control her powers. She doubts herself and tries to convince herself that maybe he's changed, and her allies even start to worry that she's forgiving him too quickly, but she ends up viewing him warily.
- Depraved Bisexual: Implied with Sethon, a cruel tyrant who is known to treat his prostitutes violently. The "bi" part is implied when Eona converses with a young eunuch and concludes that the emperor had sexually abused him as well.
- Four Is Death: The number four is considered unlucky in this universe due to its connection with death. Eona is assigned this number when she is entered into a tournament.
- Generation Xerox: In the second book, Eona gets trapped in a Love Triangle between Kygo, the future emperor, and Ido, the Rat Dragoneye. Her predecessor had also been in a similar triangle with the then emperor, and the then Rat Dragon, Somo.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: Explored near the end of the first book and throughout the second. When Ido has her cornered, Eona uses her dragon's power to force compassion into Ido. He lets her escape then and protects her multiple times afterwards, and while she's still completely disgusted by him, he starts to try charming her into trusting that he's changed. As it turns out, though, even though he's not an outright enemy to her anymore, he's still just as ruthless, selfish, power-hungry, and flat-out sadistic as he ever was. She finally tells him that, alignment switch or not, he hasn't really changed at all.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Upon discovering that his enemy is a crossdressing girl, Lord Ido's plan goes from "attempted murder" to "mind-control-assisted attempted rape". Even in the second book, when he's ostensibly a good guy, he creeps on her enough that people start seeing him as a corner in a Love Triangle.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: Eona goes from working on a salt farm to being one of the most powerful dragoneyes in the nation!
- Mineral MacGuffin: The String of Pearls turns out to be an actual string of pearls.
- Older Than They Look: Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl pretending to be a twelve-year-old boy.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons are beings of magical energy rather than fire-spewing reptiles.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Eona dresses as a boy in order to become a Dragoneye (as females aren't allowed to be one).
- Theme Table: Each dragon has an associated compass direction, zodiac year/animal, color, and virtue, and of course a Dragoneye. At the beginning of the book is a literal table listing these.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After spending some time training with Ido, Eona started to become more cruel and manipulative. Ryko complains that she's becoming just like him. She gets better, though.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Lady Dela crossdresses as a man in the second book.
