The Dragon's Son (Dragonvarld, Vol. 2)
In Mistress of Dragons we were introduced to a world where political deception, greed, and avarice have lead to a violation of the "hands off" policy of the Parliament of Dragons concerning the affairs of men. Indeed that violation threatens more than policy and order it threatens the peaceful existence of the human race.
Man's only hope and his greatest threat is The Dragon's Son.
Twins born out of violence and raised apart.
Ven (short for Vengeance) is raised in seclusion under the watchful eye of his deceased mother's Amazonian lover. He is a child whose appearance belies his heritage - half-man/ half-dragon.
Marcus is raised in a court, and given all of the protections and breeding that would entail. He appears to be completely human, yet his psychic link with the brother he has never known betrays the dragon magic that lies within him.
It is up to the dragon emissary who passes himself off as a man, Draconas, to protect them both before the internecine struggle destroys the Parliament of Dragons and brings an oppressive reign of fire down upon all mortal men.
From Publisher's Weekly:
Weaving more spellbinding magic in the second book of her Dragonvarld trilogy, Weis charts the fate of Melisande's twin sons, whose bloody birth marked the cliffhanging conclusion of Mistress of Dragons (2003). Marcus, "human, born of love and magic," and Ven, "half-dragon and half-human, born of evil," are at the crux of a conflict within the Parliament of Dragons that secretly watches over a wonderfully detailed landscape similar to medieval Earth's. The innocent twins grow up apart in vastly different worlds: Prince Marcus inherits his mother's dragon magic and lives a semi-normal life as King Edward of Idlyswylde's bastard son, while Ven, human from the waist up (but blue-scaled, white-clawed dragon from the waist down), grows up the impoverished charge of a cold, grieving ex-soldier. Dragon's blood imbues each boy with fantastic abilities, but also puts them in danger from rebel dragons disguised as humans. Readers' hearts will ache for the conflicted Ven. Other notable characters include the wise Draconas, a dragon in human form who seeks to protect the twins and to uphold the ancient dragon law against killing humans, and Evelina, the vain and foolish gypsy who figures in Ven's reunion with his long-lost twin. A surprising, fire-breathing conclusion, sure to please dragon fans, sets the stage for volume three.
From Booklist:
In the exciting middle volume of Weis' Dragonvald trilogy (begun in Mistress of Dragons, the twin sons of a high priestess--one sired by King Edward; the other, by renegade dragon Grald--are growing up. Their mother died in childbirth, and neither knows he has a twin. Draconas, the dragon charged by the dragon parliament with walking among humans in human form, put Grald's son, Ven, under the protection of a woman warrior, who has made a home deep in the forest. Draconas gave King Edward the care of his son, Marcus. But now Grald is searching for both young men, and the fate of a world beset by political intrigue, evil, and violence may lie in the hands of the brothers--if they manage to stay alive. Weis maintains a carefully crafted world and deepens the characterizations of the twins as each tries to come to terms with the past and his destiny. The novel moves inexorably to a cataclysmic conclusion that points forward to the trilogy's concluding book. Sally Estes