I have a strong theory one the selection for the cover of Brisingr. So Far the Cover of each book has been important to it's meaning. The first bood Had Saphira one the cover with her Sapphire blue for the background, and she hatched in Eragon. Eldest had a cover of a red dragon on the front which we later found out in the book was Thorn, Murtagh's red dragon.

Now, here is my theory on the Cover Design. Gleadr is on the cover because it is signifying that something very important is going to happen to him in Brisingr, and the Black background in my opinion is Signifying the darkness of the Void. So Basically CP told us that Gleadr will in fact die in Brisingr.

Thoughts and opinions?

Yeah, I think he and his rider will die in this book.
It makes sense to me.

I think it's all agreed that we knew that eventually Gleadr would die, we just weren't sure on the time, based on the cover, I think it's safe to say that he will pass in the third book. I have another theory on Brisingr involving Gleadr, but I'll make another topic for it.