He rescues her and together they go across country until they meet up with an old Chinese woman, a healer, who helps Jing-Wei reverse the process on her feet and tells them how they can kill the dragon, if they are brave enough to try. As Jude tries to help her, he learns that she is Chinese, from a noble family, whose feet have been bound as is the custom in her culture. As Jude takes to the road, he meets a young girl who is a freak in a traveling caravan, caged, with strange almond eyes and stumps for feet. This last dragon goes over the countryside, terrorizing people, killing every living thing in its path. Jude's own family and home are destroyed by a dragon, just as most believe the dragons have been exterminated decades before. Jordan uses the power of the direct narrative, through the mechanism of having the main character, Jude, relate the adventure of hunting the last dragon to a young monk who copies it down as Jude speaks. The West and the East share the mythology of the dragon, with those in England at the time terrified by the thought of a dragon devastating their villages and fields, killing all in its path.

The story here takes place in England in 1356, before the West knows about the printing press or gunpowder.

She combines the power of myth with dramatic characters that resonate with modern readers. To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, July 2002: Few write for YAs with the skill Jordan has at her disposal, as we have seen in her Secret Sacrament and The Raging Quiet. The hunting of the last dragon.' Retrieved from The hunting of the last dragon.' The Free Library. But against his will, Gabriel finds himself caught up in the power struggles of a corrupt Empire, endangering all that he loves. Derived from a deep sense of guilt and strange mysterious visions Gabriel knows that he is destined to become a healer, with the power to decipher dreams, no matter what his overbearing family argues. Haunted by a terrible childhood secret Gabriel spurns family tradition and duties as the eldest son, to pursue a life of helping others. His life is now marked out for greatness by powers beyond his understanding.He's never wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a wealthy, sea-faring merchant, celebrated by all in the ancient empire of Navora - but cold and distant to his family. In doing so, he forever binds himself and his fate to them. Too frightened to answer her pleas for help, the child runs away, taking with him the sacred bone carving of the Shinili people.

Terrified, a young Navaron child watches helplessly from his hiding place as a young Shinili woman is brutally beaten and abused by a group of drunken Navaron men.

Secret sacrament by sherryl jordan