Obsidian Embers Read online

  First to go was The Diamond. The huge doors in the roof were opened up, and he rose up into the air, joined by the waiting, screeching Shinies.

  Once they had flown away, it was The Obsidian's turn. As soon as the Glassies from the Fleet were circling around overhead, the roof doors opened. Olivia could only stand at the window of Kushanu's cave and watch him go. You'll come back. I know you will. This is not the end. It can't be!

  She was hardly aware of The Sapphire being released; but in moments, all three of the Jewels were gone . . . and they had taken their clones, the Fleet Dragons, with them.

  Olivia realized, as though from a great distance, that Zach stood beside her. "I'm sorry. But it's for the best," he said. "We can't control them any longer. You don't want to see them just locked up in their caves and fed like zoo animals, do you?"

  Very slowly, the heavy roof doors began to close. She could hear the creaks and groans of the metallic workings as the doors rolled shut. But she kept her eyes closed, feeling tears prick the insides of her eyelids. Keep it together, Olivia, she scolded herself. She knew this wasn't the end.

  Suddenly the noise stopped. Olivia opened her eyes. And to her shock and amazement, and tremendous joy, she saw each of the Three Jewels appear at his roof door and fly down to the floor of his cave.

  The Obsidian crept over to her, huge and gleaming, and stood right in front of the window with one forefoot slightly raised as though offering to carry her. "I knew you would return for me," she whispered. "Of course I will go with you. I would go anywhere with you."

  "Olivia, please listen to me," Zach begged, trying to keep up with her as she ran through the corridors. "Please don't do this. Please don't go! We need you here. We need experts to help figure out what to do with a hundred superweapons flying around uncontrolled!"

  "You've got two Glassy controllers who are staying with you," she said. "You've got an entire base full of experts whose entire working lives have been spent creating these Dragons. You don't need me. But I need them. I need him."

  Along with thirty of the other Glassy controllers who were going with her plus a couple of techs she'd never met, Olivia raced through the corridors of the residential wing to get to her room. Once inside, she threw a few possessions into a nylon bag and then pulled on the dark blue Warmsuit that everyone had been issued upon arrival.

  "You can't do this. You can't!" cried Zach, hurrying after her again. "You can't ride on the back of a dragon halfway around the world! It's too cold. Too high. You'll slip. You'll fall off. None of you will survive!"

  For a brief second, she paused and looked up into his stricken face. "Thank you, Zach, for all you've done,” she said quietly. “I know you'll take good care of this place. All of you will." She squeezed his arm for an instant and then she was gone, racing back to the Cavern of the Three Jewels.

  6

  Within the hour, dressed in her dark-blue, high-tech Warmsuit that was designed to keep a person warm in the most extreme Arctic conditions, Olivia found herself clinging to the cold, slick back of The Obsidian as he flew to the northwest, out over the Pacific Ocean.

  It was the first time she had ever touched him. He really did seem to be made of something like volcanic glass, dark and gleaming and immensely strong.

  Behind him swarmed his thirty-two clones, each of which also carried riders in Warmsuits. These thirty men and two women had once been the controllers for these creatures, but now they were at the mercy of the dragons. All they could do was shut their eyes behind their heavy goggles and hold on to the slick, glassy necks as best they could.

  For some reason, though, Olivia trusted The Obsidian and the other Glassies. They wouldn’t let their riders fall.

  Olivia was vaguely aware that The Diamond and his Shinies had gone out to the northeast, while The Sapphire and his Birdies had traveled almost due north over the Atlantic. But she quickly forgot all about them as terror and exhilaration swept over her simultaneously.

  She closed her eyes tightly and tried not look down at the ocean far, far below. That made her suddenly realize that as The Obsidian flew – as all of the Glassies flew – their wings made a distinctive shearing, whistling sound as they cut through the air, caused by the glass-sharp edges of their scales.

  Even with her ears snugly covered by the hood of the Warmsuit, Olivia could hear that sound. And she realized that she, and the others who rode the Glassies now, were the first people ever to hear it. No one else had ever gone outside with them in the brutal cold of Antarctica, not even in Warmsuits. There had been no reason to take the risk . . . until now.

  Before long, Olivia began to lose track of time. Between the cold, and the endless flying, it was becoming difficult to stay awake or even to move. It seemed as though her very heartbeat slowed down and might stop altogether if she could not get back down to somewhere warm.

  Did The Obsidian realize that the humans could not tolerate the cold as he and the other dragons did, even in Warmsuits? Did they understand that humans did not have limitless strength, as dragons did? Olivia was not sure that any of them really knew that, even if The Obsidian had some memories of his time as a human.

  In dragon form, The Obsidian would think as a dragon . . . and never realize that he was flying her and thirty-two other men and women to their deaths.

  Slowly opening her eyes, she peered down through the wispy clouds beneath them. There was land down there – islands – and also a distant coastline. Trying to open fingers that were stiff with cold, she placed her hands flat against the thick glass scales of his neck and tried to push downward.

  Down. You must take us down. We won't survive if you don't. Please hear me before I black out . . . please take us down.

  Sometime later – Olivia did not know how much later – she awoke feeling very warm and comfortable on a bed of –

  Sand.

  Sitting up, Olivia saw that she had been resting on a long, narrow beach with a towering cliff up above them. Dragons were all around, flying gracefully through the air and walking awkwardly on the beach and swimming and playing in the ocean waves. And drinking lots of the seawater, she saw.

  The other humans sat together on the beach, sharing their food and fresh water and trying to soak up as much of the warm sun as they could. Olivia knew she should join them, but right now she simply looked up at The Obsidian as he stood towering over her, gazing down with something like gentleness in his black eyes.

  "Thank you," she said. "We'll be fine now. Just set us down every few hours and you can take us anywhere you like."

  Very carefully, so that he would stay clear of her, The Obsidian crouched down until he rested on the sand like some great sphinx. His tail twitched and his eyes closed as he, too, rested in the full sun, absorbing its heat in a way that had not been possible even in the very bright daylight of the Antarctic.

  Olivia could not resist reaching out to touch him. Of course, she'd been clinging to his neck in a panic for the past day or so, with her arms and legs tightly wrapped around him. But now, safely on the ground and standing in the soft warm sunlight, she could reach out and touch him with gentleness, exploration, and awed appreciation for his beauty and strength.

  Walking all around him, she ran her fingertips over the thick, glassy scales and noted how sharp the edges really were. The Obsidian had kept them pulled down tight against his neck while she had ridden him and it was a good thing, for the scales surely would have cut her Warmsuit up otherwise.

  Though Olivia had spent countless hours observing the magnificent dragon in his cave and out at flight, there was so much she did not know about him. About how even though he was covered with near black scales, cool and glasslike, his dark wings were like smooth leather, with no glass to them at all. He did have four legs, with the hind legs huge and powerful and the forelegs long and slender – more like human arms, though still covered with glass scales. His back was high and arched, the tail serpentine and slim.

  He lowered his great head so she
could touch his face. With its fine, smooth skin and huge, glittering black eyes, it was as refined and beautiful and near to human as the face of a dragon could be.

  "You are as wonderful to me as I always knew you would be," she told him, and this time she placed her hand on the scales of his shoulder instead of on the invisbile glass barrier at the edge of his cave. "More wonderful . . . far more."

  By way of answer, the great dragon raised his head and wings and took off once more into the bright sky, flying out over the sea and diving down to drink deeply of the frothing surf.

  Some two or three days later – all of them were losing track of time – The Obsidian and his thirty-two dragons began flying in a great wide circle around an island. A very large island. And one that seemed somehow familiar to Olivia.

  There was little in the way of civilization on it. They saw the first evidence of the terrible damage done by the asteroid after it had broken up and entered the atmosphere, for what looked like a couple of small cities on the eastern coast had been flattened by what could only have been an overwhelming tsunami from the giant rocks smashing into the ocean.

  Olivia realized that many seaside places would simply be gone, all around the globe.

  As the dragons continued to circle, she saw no other signs of civilization – but what she did see were volcanoes. Two of them. They were near the center and extended thousands of feet into the air, sending up thin streams of smoke and steam that were visible for many miles.

  But on the eastern coast, near the southern tip of the island, Olivia spotted another volcano. This one had no towering cone and seemed to be made of vents that smoked and steamed here and there. But it was impossible to look away from the bright orange-red lava that poured into the large waves of the ocean at the edge of the land, sending up constant, heavy steam and setting the sea to boiling.

  Finally, the dragons reached a spot just above the southernmost tip of the island and glided down together to the earth, onto a grassy plain at the top of high black cliffs overlooking the ocean. And just a short way to the north was a gentle slope that led to a narrow beach with very unusual sand – sand that was a dull greenish-brown.

  Sliding off of The Obsidian's neck, Olivia walked down the grassy plain to get a better look at the bright blue ocean and the black cliffs and the very small, narrow green beach.

  Suddenly she began to laugh, covering her face with her hands and laughing until she could hardly breathe.

  The two women controllers hurried over to her, still dressed in their Warmsuits. "Olivia! Are you all right?"

  Olivia sat up, still laughing, bracing herself with her hands behind her on the grass. Looking up at the woman who spoke to her, she realized that she didn't even know their names. "Oh, I'm fine," she answered. "I think we're all fine. Do you know where we are – um – "

  "I'm Julia," the woman said, pushing her short, dark hair back from her face. "Julia Jones. And this is Karen Larson.”

  "I was one of the controllers for Obsidian Eleven," Karen said. She had blonde hair, also cut short. "We called him Cutter."

  "And I was a controller for Obsidian Twenty-Seven," said Julia. "Zach was another. We called our dragon Speedy. But no, I don't know where we are."

  "Well, I do!" said Olivia, still giggling as she got to her feet and stood up again. "Look out there, to the east. Black cliffs. Green sand. Farther north, a live lava flow dripping into the ocean. Two huge volcanoes in the center of the island. And nothing but endless ocean all around.

  "Don't you see? The sharp black glass that we call 'obsidian' is born in volcanoes just like these. These dragons – The Obsidian and his children – they've come home. Home to the volcanic islands which contain, in greatest part, the very elements of which their dragon armor is composed.

  "They've brought us to Hawaii, land of volcanoes. The dragons have brought us home to paradise!"

  7

  Up above the green sand beach, on the open grassy plain where they could see for miles, the men and women and dragons began settling in at the place that they knew would be their home . . . quite possibly forever.

  While the dragons stayed down near the foot of the black cliffs to bathe and, especially, drink deeply of the seawater that would give them fire, the first thing the humans did was strip off their Warmsuits for what was undoubtedly the last time. The suits would make good beds but would otherwise not be needed in this place.

  There were blocks and pieces of black volcanic rock all around the plain and especially at the edge of the green sand beach. Some of the rocks on the plain had been stacked into crude walls and squares a few feet high, like the foundations of houses, though the people who had built these little structures were long gone.

  Now, though, Olivia, Julia, and Karen each claimed one of the partial structures and made it her own. Olivia's was the one closest to the green beach, with a magnificent view of the ocean to the south and east.

  The thirty human men, the former controllers who had come with them, all moved a little more to the west and found places to camp at least temporarily. They mostly just seemed glad to have the journey over with so they could get some uninterrupted sleep.

  The three women gathered to talk for a few minutes and try to make a few plans. "There's plenty of fresh water here. Springs and streams everywhere," said Olivia. "And I'm betting that some of them are warm springs, maybe even hot, right up the coast near the volcano. I can't wait to soak in a nice hot spring, after spending so long in Antarctica!"

  "There will be no shortage of food," Julia said. "We can start searching for wild fruits and greens. The dragons can easily provide all the fish we'll ever need."

  "I'm sure I saw some cattle running on these same plains farther inland," said Karen. "Plenty of meat for us and for dragons."

  "And no trouble to get fire for cooking. Just ask a dragon!" said Olivia, as they all grinned. "Though we'll have to find a supply of firewood somewhere. Not many trees up here on this plain. "

  "Ha! We'll just send the men out for that job," said Julia, and they all laughed together.

  But suddenly the three women fell silent as the sky darkened above them. Thirty-two dragons rose up from the sea and then flew overhead, with the largest of them in the lead. They all went past the little settlement and came down to earth together out on the great plain. Olivia could just see them all forming a group and then lying down to sleep, curling up tight until they looked like nothing more than a collection of dark glassy boulders out among the tall, dry waving grass.

  The women just looked at each other. They all knew what that meant, having seen it happen several times at the base back in Antarctica.

  The creatures had all lain down as dragons, but they would awaken as men.

  In the west, the fading light still hung softly in the sky. In the east, the waxing moon, approaching full, had already risen above the sea. Olivia stepped back from the three-sided volcanic rock structure she had claimed for herself and looked it over.

  The little structure was perhaps ten feet square and was open on the east, looking out over a little strip of plain just above the black cliffs which dropped away to the sea. It would not be difficult to fashion some sort of roof for the little house, either from palm leaves or, more likely, from the remains of other buildings on the island which had been abandoned after the tsunami hit.

  She'd gone out and gathered several armloads of the long, dry, soft grasses from the plain and heaped them up on one side of their shelter. The Warmsuit had gone on top of that and would provide a durable, smooth surface on which to sleep.

  Along another inner wall, Olivia had lined up the few things she'd brought with her in her nylon bag . . . a few bags of concentrated, dehydrated food, a hygiene kit, and one change of clothes. That was all that would fit in that bag and she felt sure that the other women had brought the same. But if they wanted absolutely anything else, they'd have to go out and find it themselves.

  It wasn't much, but it was home. She'd had surviva
l training, as had all the other humans who were with her. Between them and thirty-three near invincible, fire-breathing dragons, they had all ended up in a pretty good place in which to spend the end of the world.

  As the twilight disappeared and the light of the moon rained down over them, Olivia looked up to see the dark figures of the Dragonmen returning to the campsite from their open spot out on the plain. They walked through the camp like shadowed ghosts to find whatever spots they wished to claim for their own . . . but Olivia had eyes only for the tallest of them, who walked straight over to her.

  Kushanu gleamed in the moonlight as though his skin really was made of glass. But as she turned to face him, and he reached out to take her by the shoulder and pull her close, there was no question that his skin was as soft and warm and smooth as any man's.

  Olivia rested her head on his broad shoulder, and without a word, Olivia stripped off her t-shirt, leggings, and underwear and tossed them aside. Kushanu lifted her up, carried her into her little shelter, and placed her down on the bed she had made.

  The walls were only a few feet high, but that was enough to shield them from the sight of anyone else on the land around them. And to the east, there was no one to see them but the white moon and the glistening black sea.

  Not that any of that mattered to Olivia at the moment, not with the way Kushanu immediately dropped down and pinned her to the makeshift bed, holding her tightly

  . A hot thrill ran through her: something about Kushanu's body language made it clear that he wasn't just here as Olivia's human lover. No, he was claiming her as his mate as well. There was something animalistic about the lust in his dark, heated gaze – but she had always trusted him.