The Beastmaster's Return

Vincent Claude calls a trial by duel for the family estate, on the grounds that his nephew Theo has no magic and cannot hold it. Theo is eight. He wins, using an iron ring nobody in the house recognizes as the Edict of Ten Thousand Dragons, and knowledge of beasts that an eight-year-old has no way of having. The knowledge belongs to Aurelion Veil, Grand Master of the Valhallan Dragon Command, who was betrayed by his deputy Victor Thorne on the Eastern Front and left there to die. Centuries later he woke up inside Theo Claude. The Imperial Beastmaster Tournament follows. Sabotage runs through the rounds and the head judge is Victor Thorne, who does not know who is standing in front of him. Theo goes after the empire's practice of binding beasts into service. The Eastern Front holds the rest of it, including what actually came back from the dead.