On Wings of a Dragon

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

The young teen heroine of this suspenseful mystery wakes to find herself
in a prison cell at the top of a tower. Weak and injured, Kour’el
struggles to recall who she is and where she came from. Fragmented
memories of a long journey and a terrifying fall surface slowly. Her
grandfather had been the chief huntsman and favorite companion of King
Vassill. The king had disappeared, with suspicion falling on his wife,
Queen Mariah.

It falls to 14-year-old Kour’el to go with the flying dragon,
Api’Nagi, to put things right. There are hints that the king may still
be alive, and that his former subjects may recover both their king and
their freedom if Kour’el succeeds in her quest. The fragmented
messages and a hidden opening in an old stone wall are all ingredients
of this delicious mystery.

Cora Taylor’s acknowledged sources of inspiration for this fine novel
are Peter Dickinson’s A Flight of Dragons and a year spent in Tasmania
amidst fantastic landscape and wild life. Taylor’s writing for
children and young adults has won many awards. Her prose in this novel
flows smoothly, with good rhythms. Highly recommended.