Voyage of the Basilisk - Marie Brennan 
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 (view spoiler)[Six years after their trip to Eriga, Isabella and Tom embark on a two-year expedition around the world on board the Royal Survey Ship Basilisk. When their ship run aground on the island of Keonga during a violent storm, Isabella and Suhail (an akhian archeologist), after riding a sea-serpent together, discover that Princess Miriam has been held captive for weeks and use a stolen Yelangese caeliger made of dragonbones to alert the Scirland Navy. Once back home, Isabella is knighted Dame while Tom became a Fellow of the Philosophers' Colloquium. (hide spoiler)] 
 Politics played a much larger part in this volume than in the first two and Isabella's actions have a larger impact on them than ever. Once again, Isabella has to comply with the local culture, who sees her as ke'anaka'i (neither male or female), using her special status to an advantage. It was great to see her ten-year-old son Jacob find his life's passion and Isabella's discovery of an intact petrified dragon egg (the source of firestone) from a yet-unknown species hints at the discoveries she has yet to make. 
 "[This] love I have for dragons, my compulsion to understand them ... I have thought of it before as if there were a dragon within me. A part of my spirit. I do not believe it is true in any mystical sense, of course; I am as human as you are. But in the metaphorical sense, yes. 'Dragon-spirited' is as good a term for me as any." 
 - Chapter 13