The Eyes of the Dragon

"A kingdom is in turmoil as the old King Roland dies and its worthy successor, Prince Peter, must do battle to claim what is rightly his. Plotting against him is the evil Flagg and his pawn, young Prince Thomas. Yet with every plan there are holes - like Thomas's terrible secret. And the determined Prince Peter, who is planning a daring escape from his imprisonment..." (very first page)

The sequence of events that occur in the plot go like this: Two sons are born from Queen Sasha and King Roland, Prince Peter then Prince Thomas. Fearing that the Queen Sasha would ruin his plans, Flagg, the several hundred years old magician and royal advisor succeeded in deposing of her when Peter is only five. Eleven years later, after Peter served the King his nightly glass of vine, Flagg came in and killed Roland by offering him a second glass of wine that was poison. Peter was found guilty of the murder, as Flagg had planned, and was sentenced to life imprisonment atop a tower called the Needle by Anders Peyna, the Judge-General. Peter would spend a good five years in the Needle until he decides to make a successful escape, only to encounter Flagg for a final confrontation.

Thomas, one of the main characters, is a particularly interesting character for several reasons. First the narrator, portrayed as a storyteller, describes Thomas as the weak, vulnerable, sad, confused, lonely younger brother of Prince Peter, who was the heir of the throne. The narrator says, "Unlike Peter, Thomas was the spitting image of his father. This pleased King Roland a little, but looking at him was too much like looking into a sly mirror" (53). He was also a pawn in Flagg's plan to destroy the kingdom of Delain. Secondly, Thomas had a terrible secret that would ultimately be a part of the downfall of Flagg. On the evening Flagg offered the poisoned glass of wine to Roland, Thomas was there to witness the murder of his father.

There are many themes in the story of The Eyes of the Dragon. One of them is courage; another is love for one's family. But the one that struck me as the most fascinating and also the most reoccurring is the theme "Good always triumphs over Evil" or "Good vs. Evil." The devious and evil Flagg was a baneful monster who had the downfall and corruption of the kingdom of Delain since the day of Allen II, one of the very early rulers of Delain. He would serve as the ruler's advisor. The birth of Peter marked the end of his reign. As fate would have it, a small miscalculation in Flagg's careful planning would be his undoing.

The story is named The Eyes of the Dragon because Thomas's secret. Flagg once showed the young prince a secret corridor. At the end of this passage was a wall with two small transparent slits. The slits were the eyes of the dragon, Niner, which was displayed as a prized trophy head in one of the king's many rooms. It was in this room that young Thomas witnessed the murder of his father the King. Also, in king Roland's earlier years, he slayed the dragon Niner, who had been terrorizing the kingdom, with only his special bow and arrow. This is a foreshadowing of the demise of Flagg when Thomas, with the help of Peter, slayed the magician the same bow and arrow his father used before him.

1. Prince Peter is tried for the murder of his father in the Royal Court of Delain. He was convicted for the supposed killing three hours after he was crowned king. Judge-General Anders Peyna knew in his heart