CHAPTER 1

The seven dragon clans slept deep underground on Rapiveshta Island. A natural cathedral hewn from stone and nature, the moun­tain’s vast and seemingly endless caverns snaked underground into the mysterious and private haven of the dragons. Clusters of light crystals sparkled alongside the stone walls. Great chambers deep within these catacombs housed the sleeping dragons. Blue mist dragons curled together, their breath bringing heavenly dreams…or frightful nightmares. Sleek green earth dragons slumbered in a chamber abundant with tall rich grasses. Silver ice dragons rested in an alcove frosted with ice, their chilly breath blending with the hot breath of the red fire dragons in the adjacent chamber, creating a pale mist that drifted through the tunnels. Small black shadow drag­ons coiled in their deep tunnels, content. Sun dragons, their golden skin bright in the shadows, slept deeply. Pale moon dragons huddled near the Drajina’s private lair, luminous in their rest.

Sandhya was the Drajina of the seven dragon clans. A moon dragon with iridescent white skin; her forehead bore the mark of the ruler of the seven clans-the silvery star brand. She stirred and open­ed her eyes, the natural sleep of her hibernation cycle suddenly broken. Her mate, Akash, a crimson fire dragon with skin that sparkled like stardust, slept nearby. The comfort of her mate’s pres­ence did not soothe her concerns. She closed her eyes taking a deep breath, but a strange darkness intruded on her peaceful return to slumber.

Perhaps it was her concern for the rookery. Sandhya had been Drajina for nearly a thousand years. Even dragons feel the discom­fort of age; and she was old, the longest reigning Drajina in the dragon’s history. A seer dragon, Sandhya knew her death would come soon. Before the Eternals summoned her to the Other World, she must be sure the next Drajina would hatch with this breeding cycle else her clans would be without a ruler to guide them.

Even with this time of the long sleep, each clan assigned protectors to the rookery for a given time to share the duties of protecting it during the hibernation. During this moon time, the shadow dragons took their duty as guardians of the rookery. Dragon eggs from each of the clans lay in the rookery, which contained thirty-two eggs, the fruits of the next generation. Large goose-sized eggs, gleaming like pearls, their beauty scored with vibrant colors: blue, scarlet, gold, silver, ebony, and more. They would hatch soon. Sandhya sensed that. The eggs, protected by ancient enchantments cast by each dragon clan, glowed with the aura of magic.

Talon and Fallon watched over the eggs and would often tussle together to break the boredom. Sandhya was often amused by their playful antics, as her lair was across from the precious nursery. Fallon and Talon were unique even among the dragons, for these rookery brothers hatched from the same egg. The smallest of the dragon clans, shadow dragons were only five feet in length, but clever with their tunnel digging, their luminous skin black as deepest night.

Sandhya’s amusement disintegrated into a nightmare as visions of Obsydia emerged in her mind, free of her prison of Light. She imagined the crystal shattering and Obsydia taking refuge in her black tower, which no mortal had ever found. Shaken, it brought back memories of Sandhya as a young hatchling when she witnessed the Bloodstone Wars that threatened all creatures, both mortal and magic. The dragons almost became extinct when Obsydia unleashed a mystical plague during the conflict of Light and Dark. Obsydia’s ruthless desire to eradicate magic from the world was a terrible time. For a thousand years she had been Light’s captive, so why this terri­ble vision now?

If Obsydia escaped, she knew it would mean chaos. Dark gods do not forgive or forget, even ones that are half mortal like Obsydia. She glanced across the chamber to the rookery again. The dragon eggs shimmered, protected by their lithe shadow dragons guardians. All looked so peaceful until a subtle but disturbing touch, fleeting and elusive, chilled her to the bone. Anxious, she raised her head and glimpsed a strand of intangible darkness in the corner of her eye. An image of a demon man cloaked with sheer mystical fabric illuminated with strange runic symbols formed in her mind. Then it vanished. She had seen this evil before as a young hatchling. She then remembered how she was saved from the threat of these demon men by the boy sorcerer, Cathal.

Talon and Fallon also sensed something was wrong and growl­ed. Then the enchantments on the eggs rang, confirming the danger. Talon slithered along the ground near the eggs, swishing his tail, angry. Fallon climbed up a pillar and cried out an alarm. 

Sandhya frantically nosed Akash’s head. “Wake up! There is danger.”

Akash woke instantly, uncoiling from his rest. “What is it?”

Sandhya raised her head, searching for the wisp of darkness and the intruder. How could it be a man? It was odd, because she did not smell human. Humans do not live on Rapiveshta, and few are ever invited. But demon men lose their natural scent, she remembered. The harsh sensation of evil and her concern for the rookery prompt­ed action.

“We’re not alone. There’s an intruder in the rookery! I saw a shadow, in the shape of a man. A man in a cloak enchanted with runic symbols-the dark kind. It looked like an Obsydian warrior.”

Akash shouted the warning cry, his roar echoing through the tunnels. Soon the sound of dragons rumbled through the tunnels. “There have been no Obsydian warriors in a thousand years, so how could it be? Are you sure? Perhaps you had a bad dream. Even seers have those.”

Sandhya shuddered, the aura of evil now palpable. She snapped her head over to where the eggs rested and saw footprints in the dirt-man-shaped footprints walking away from the rookery and a wisp of unnatural shade. “Look there on the ground!”

Fallon snarled and somehow managed to catch an edge of a fragment of darkness in his teeth and clamped down. A faint dark mist sparked and Talon’s nimble claws seized the spectral magic like a trail of black light and ripped a rune cloak from the invader. The cloak’s concealing magic vanished like shadows in sunlight. The stranger materialized.

Sandhya surveyed the enemy. It was a human, or at least it had been human, for the face had lost its soul to darkness. Red eyes stared at her coolly. The last time she saw such an abomination was a thousand years ago during the Bloodstone Wars.

“Kill it,” Akash shouted.

“No wait,” Sandhya cried. “We must learn why this evil is here, and why it even exists after so long a time. It’s a threat to us all. We have seen this mark before, Akash. You too lived during the Bloodstone time. Many of our clans now have no such memory to warn them of its dangers.”

Talon and Fallon surrounded the stranger, growling and clawing at the ground.

“It does smells of demon, Drajina,” Fallon said. “But not like trolls. It was near our young. He must have wanted to hurt our eggs, or even steal one. Let us kill it for you.”

“Not yet, but soon, my little guardians,” Sandhya promised.

Akash sniffed the air. “You were right. He is demon touched.”

Sandhya leaned closer to the spy. “Yes, I smell bloodstone magic. Why have you trespassed? Who are you? Speak carefully, thief. The manner of your death depends on it.”

The prisoner was void of emotion and looked directly at Sandhya. “Obsydia commanded I come here.”

“She is a prisoner of Light,” the Drajina countered, though she knew this was no longer true.

“Foul light no longer imprisons our dark queen. Obsydia is free. Darkness shall rise. Light will be destroyed.”

Her terrible vision confirmed as truth, she turned to Akash. “Send someone to check the crystal chamber. If Obsydia is indeed free as I saw in my vision, Cathal would have tried to leave us a message. He knows our times of hibernation.” She turned back to the warrior. “Why did you come? One lone assassin is not enough to kill seven clans of dragons. You planned to harm our eggs.”

“Obsydia longs for a dragon to control. The next Drajina is within your rookery. To turn a dragon evil would be a great victory. I was ordered take it and then destroy what remained of the rookery too, but alas I have failed. My rune cloak was conjured to conceal me, but dragon magic is different, I think. I was told your hiberna­tion was deep, and did not suspect you could sense me. I would have killed you too, Sandhya, if I could have done so and escaped. Obsydia would enjoy a cloak made from dragon skin.”

“I have been a fool,” Akash moaned. “This monster came too close to harming our rookery, and you, my mate. Forgive me.”

“No Akash,” Sandhya said. “We have lived alone and in peace for centuries. The solitude of this island has been our sanctuary. We have all grown lax with the bounty of peace. The diabolism of Obsydia is not easy to detect. Many have been deceived by her tricks in the past. Now we will kill this villain, though it is strange he speaks so freely of his plans.”

“Perhaps the wicked welcome death,” Fallon remarked, keeping his gaze on the prisoner. “Let us give it to him.”

The Obsydian warrior pulled off his glove, revealing a ring of obsidian stone set in ebonite. He kissed the ring. “Forgive me, Queen Obsydia. I have failed.”

A deep feminine voice echoed through the chamber, full of dark beauty and frightening promise. “I forgive you.”

The ring on his finger flared black and fiery, swiftly spreading through the warrior’s body, consuming the demon with a flame burning hotter than a fire dragon’s. Fallon and Talon leapt to the stone pillars to evade the burst of flame. A brief wail of agony would have earned pity, if the demon man had not been Obsydia’s assassin. When the burning ceased, only a brief flash of his skeleton shimmered before it crumbled into a pile of smoking black ashes.

“What the hell was that?” one of the shadow dragons cried.

Sandhya circled the smoldering ashes. “That was Obsydia’s forgiveness.”

The dragon clans were awake now and would not return to hibernation, not as long as Obsydia was free to walk the world.

One of the earth dragons entered the chamber and bowed his head. “Drajina, we checked the crystal chamber and Cathal did leave us a message that Obsydia has escaped. He could not come to us now, as his family is in peril.”

Sandhya proclaimed, “This is only the beginning. We must pro­tect our children.” She closed her eyes, for her visions now opened to her to reveal the path she must take. She knew her egg with the white and red shell was the future of her race. She knew the next ruler of her clans was in peril. 

“Rapiveshta Island is no longer safe. The Obsidian War is coming. The Topaz Age is gone. All nations will war in this conflict of Light and Dark.”

Akash flicked his tail. “Let the humans war, as they do that often enough.”

“This is different, for the fate of the world is at stake, Akash. If it were only humans, we would never interfere. There can be only one victor in this war-Light or Dark. If Darkness wins, the world will be doomed to shadow and chaos, magic will go extinct, and everyone will die.”

“What must we do?” Akash asked.

“Each clan must act now to protect the next generation. We will scatter the eggs and hide them around the world. It is not safe for them to be in one place. The demon tried to take our egg, Akash, and Obsydia will not stop until she succeeds. We were her first target in the Bloodstone Wars. Now she is free to wreak havoc. There will be no rest for us now.”

“We must protect our egg,” Akash affirmed. “Our offspring is precious, be she the next ruler or not.”

“We must find Cathal. He saved our race once. His sorcery pro­vided an antidote to Obsydia’s poison. Now I will ask him to safe­guard the future of the dragons again.”