The Obsidian Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Progression Series (The Dragon Thief Book 4), page 1
The Obsidian Dragon
The Dragon Thief Book 4
D.K. Holmberg
Copyright © 2021 by D.K. Holmberg
Cover art by Damonza.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Want a free book and to be notified when D.K. Holmberg’s next novel is released, along with other news and freebies? Sign up for his mailing list by going here. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
www.dkholmberg.com
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Author’s Note
Series by D.K. Holmberg
Chapter One
As the volcano trembled, Ty instinctively reacted, looking up to the peak of Ishantil, watching for any sign of glowing that would indicate the volcano was ready to erupt. He knew it was unlikely. The volcano was quiet and had been so ever since the priests had performed their ceremony, dropping the dragon egg into the volcano. There was no reason for him to be worried, but there was a part of him that still trembled.
He rubbed his hand over his stomach, feeling the heat within his belly, heat that came from the smoke dragon that had bonded to him but barely ever made his presence known. Even now, this close to the volcano, when Ty expected the dragon to react, there was nothing. Just the emptiness.
“You know, you could behave sometimes,” Ty muttered.
Passersby on the street look in his direction, likely thinking that he was a little mad. Ever since Ishantil had threatened to erupt, there had been a strangeness to some people within the city. There were far too many who had not fully recovered, Ty among them. Though in his case, it was not because of his experience or anything that left him fearing the volcano itself. It was more about what had happened to him, and how he had changed. And he had definitely changed.
He paused and looked over to the temple. It was time for him to stop and visit his brother, as it had been for quite some time. Ty needed questions answered, and Albion had those answers, but he wasn’t entirely sure if his brother would provide them. After all, he had held back so many things from Ty already.
Instead, he made his way toward another location.
He stopped in front of a small home with the door painted blue. This was where he had first come after his parents disappeared, a place that had been comfortable for him, and a place that had given him safety before he had gone off with Bingham. He approached slowly, and when he knocked, he didn’t have to wait long before Maeve pulled the door open. She glanced past him, looking along the street, as if expecting others to be there.
“You’re alone,” she said.
Her gray hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but her eyes were bright and vibrant, as they always had been. Ty couldn’t remember a time when Maeve hadn’t been clear-eyed when she looked at him. It was almost as if she saw things that no one else could.
“I’m alone,” he said.
She frowned, tipped her head to the side, and watched him for a moment. “Did something happen?”
“I don’t know, you mean besides learning the people my mother was connected to were not what I believed?”
Maeve’s brow darkened, and she waved him in. “What did he tell you?” Maeve asked as Ty headed into her home. The air smelled of the different spices, oils, and herbs that she used in her various concoctions. Maeve was a healer, and a skilled one, often using different treatments than most within the city had ever experienced.
He glanced over to her. “Why? Did you lie about something, too?” His eyes hardened.
“It’s just the way you are looking. You seem like you learned something.”
Ty had come here because he was convinced that Maeve knew more than she had let on. There were answers here, he was certain. But the challenge would be finding them and learning who he could and couldn’t trust.
“It’s Bingham,” Ty said.
Maeve turned to the stove, put a kettle on, and began to scoop spices into two mugs. “Of course it’s Bingham. You wouldn’t have come here unless it was Bingham. Then again, I hadn’t seen you for years, other than passing, and now you keep popping up.” She glanced over to Ty. “Not that I can complain,” she went on. “I missed you, Ty.”
Truth be told, he had missed her, as well. There was something comforting about Maeve. Ever since losing his mother, he hadn’t had anybody around him who treated him the way Maeve did. She was maternal but also demanding. She had wanted the best for him and had expected it in return.
In some ways, that was like his mother, but his mother had not demanded anything from him. She had been willing to let him choose his own path, and had never minded his curiosity, and had never minded the fact that Ty had not possessed the same drive as Albion.
“He knew her better than he let on,” Ty said. He leaned toward Maeve, taking a seat at the table, and rested his elbow. He waited until she poured hot water onto the spices, stirred it, and handed him a mug. “But he still won’t tell me anything substantial.”
“Maybe there’s a reason behind it?”
This was the other reason that Ty had wanted to come here. He didn’t know for sure whether Maeve would be honest with him or not. He’d hoped that she would reveal what she knew about his heritage, such as it was, whether there had been any others in his family who were Tecal.
“What do you remember about my mother?” Ty asked, bringing the tea up to his nose and taking a long sniff. “What do you really remember?”
“I didn’t know her as well as Bingham. I don’t think anyone knew her as well as he did. She was a proud woman, and she was incredibly skilled. Most who come here to Zarinth do so out of necessity, but I think she came here out of a desire to be in Zarinth. That’s rare, Ty.”
“I thought we were always here,” Ty said softly. “I didn’t know that we came from some other place.”
“I’m not entirely sure you did. Your mother and your father, however, are different.”
“Really?”
Maeve shrugged. “I don’t want you to read too much into what I’m saying. I didn’t know them as well as Bingham did. At least, as well as he knew your mother.” Maeve looked away. “He knew her from some time before.”
“Before when?”
“Honestly, Ty,” Maeve said, setting her mug down on the table and dropping into the seat across from him. “These are questions that you can ask him.”
“I’m going to ask him,” Ty said. “But the issue is that I don’t know whether Bingham will tell me the truth.”
“It’s like that, is it?”
“He trained me to be a thief, Maeve.”
“I believe you have some ownership in that as well. He may have trained you, but you were the one who accepted that training. Willingly, I might add. You had an alternative opportunity, but you chose that one.”
“I chose it because it was the only thing that might offer me the opportunity to find out what happened to them.”
“You don’t know if that’s the truth or not.” She had that look in her eyes, the one that she always did when this argument started.
It was an old argument between the two of them. Maeve had been disappointed when he had gone off to work with Bingham, and even now, it seemed as if she had not fully forgiven him. Not that Ty could blame her. He had gone away from her teachings, and no longer even remembered some of the basics that she had him trained for. She had wanted him to be something more and had hoped that he could work with her. At the same time, he remembered Maeve always telling him that he was born for something more. It was that which had brought him here today. He just had to find a way to tease the information out of her.
“If I hadn’t had the funds to buy information, I would’ve never learned that they headed west.”
Maeve snorted, bringing her tea up and taking a long drink. “Again, you don’t know that. You’re relying upon the word of a traveling merchant, and one who isn’t all that reliable, I might add. I’ve heard the stories of her. Heading in and out of here, traveling across the border, and even beyond.” She shook her head. “The stories that spread from her are—”
“You can’t blame Maggie for this, either.”
Maeve regarded him for a long moment. “You would protect her?”
“I’m not trying to upset her. Nor am I trying to upset you. I’m just trying to…” Ty wasn’t exactly sure what he was trying to do at this point. The only th
“Why do you think I would?”
“Because I remember you mentioning something,” he admitted.
Maeve watched him, and then she breathed out slowly. “I shouldn’t be the one to share this with you,” she muttered. She got up, headed to the back of her home, and disappeared for a few moments. Ty watched, waiting for her to return. Finally, I found it.
There had been countless times where he had searched through his childhood home, hoping for something that would help him remember more about his parents, to learn more about what had happened, and to understand why his mother, father, and brother had disappeared, leaving him alone. He had come to his own sort of peace with his brother and the reason that Albion had disappeared. By following the Flame, Albion was convinced that he was serving some higher purpose, much the same way that Ty had believed that finding his parents served a higher purpose.
When Maeve returned, she carried a lacquered wood box. She set it on the table in front of him.
“What is this?”
“Your mother sent word before she left,” Maeve said. “I didn’t know that it was the last time she was going to leave, so don’t you start questioning whether I betrayed you, because I didn’t. I have been nothing if not faithful to you, Ty.”
He glanced up from the lacquered box, and he held her gaze. “I never accused you of anything else.”
“No, you did not, but I’ve been around you long enough to know the way your mind works. I know that if you think someone has misled you, or perhaps betrayed you, you are going to have issues with it. And to be honest, I can’t blame you.” She pushed the box across the table to him. “She told me that if she wasn’t back within a week, I was to go fetch this.”
“This wasn’t in our home,” Ty said.
He ran his hand along the surface of the box. It was smooth, and slightly warm. It reminded him somewhat of the obsidian dragon relics that he had gathered, the same kind of dragon relics his mother had always favored.
“No,” she said. “This wasn’t in your home. And she wasn’t going to leave it anywhere you could find. Had you not progressed as you have, I wasn’t even going to show it to you.”
Ty paused, looking over to Maggie. “Progressed as I have?”
How much did Maeve know about what he had been doing? Could she know that he’d been training as a Tecal?
“She left instructions. I was to provide this to you or your brother when you reached a specific maturity. She was vague about that, but I assumed she wanted me to be the one to judge. When I first began working with you, I thought you’d find that maturity as you learned my craft. But then you ran off with Bingham, and I started to question if you’d ever become mature enough. After you left Zarinth, it seemed that you’d begun to find your place in the world, running around with that Tecal woman. I’ve seen the two of you together.” She grinned. “You make quite the couple.”
Ty smirked, and he could only imagine Gayal’s reaction at hearing that she thought the two of them were a couple. “I don’t think she views me that way.”
“Maybe only because you don’t view yourself that way.”
“I’m still trying to figure things out,” Ty muttered.
“Well, I can’t say that you are mature. At least, not to my assessment of maturity. I don’t think this is how your mother wanted you to acquire this. But then again, I can’t say that she was very clear in her instructions, either—just enough to know that you, or your brother, should be the ones to take this.”
“Why did you never give it to Albion?”
“When he ran off with the priesthood, there was never the opportunity.”
Ty ran his hand along the box again. “What’s inside here?”
“That’s for you, Tydornen.”
He opened the box and looked inside. Ty wasn’t sure what he expected. It was a box that was filled with something his mother had left him, a box that had been bequeathed to him, but given to him indirectly. A box that his mother had wanted him to have if something were to happen to her.
He wasn’t expecting there to be three small obsidian figurines inside.
He lifted the first one. It was small, barely palm sized, and slightly warm. The level of detail on the figurine was exquisite. It almost looked like a piece from a game board, but it was somehow something more. The next was a dragon with its wings spread, its tail curled around, and he could imagine flames shooting from this miniaturized dragon’s mouth. The last was small, squat, and covered in spikes.
“Why this?” Ty asked, looking up at her.
“I never understood your mother. She was interesting, to say the least. Unique in her own way. If only there was some way that I could have helped her, but I don’t know what could’ve been done for her.”
“You wonder if you might’ve been able to save her?”
“I wonder if it would’ve been possible,” she said softly. She looked over to him. “I didn’t want this life for you, Ty. I don’t think she wanted this life for you. I think if it were up to her, she would have saved you. She would have found a way to keep you from stealing, and perhaps the danger that you’ve allowed yourself to get caught up in.”
Ty closed the box and looked up at her. “Danger?”
“You don’t think you’ve been in any danger? I seem to recall a young man coming to me with a dragon-bone crossbow bolt sticking out of his shoulder that needed healing. Perhaps that’s not a sign of danger, or maybe I’m mistaken in that, as well.”
Ty chuckled. “Well, I did get caught in that. It’s not like I wanted to, though. I got dragged into dealing with Lothinal attacking the kingdom.”
“I know, Ty.” She sat back, cupping her tea. “What do you think you will do about it?”
“Maybe I can show Bingham,” Ty said. “Then again, with Bingham, I have no idea what he might even share with me. He’s been secretive.”
“Perhaps he has good reason.”
“And he has a past that’s more than what I imagined.”
“We all have a past,” Maeve said.
Ty looked over to her, expecting her to elaborate, but she did not.
“You didn’t know anything else about her?”
“Nothing I can share with you now,” she said.
“Which means that you have something more you could share with me.”
“If only there was,” she said. “How long will you be in the city?”
“Well, we’ve been investigating the border with Lothinal, watching for signs of what are known as the Order threatening to invade again, but thankfully things have been calm. I’m hopeful we will return to the capital soon.”
“I never would’ve taken you for one to want to end up in the capital.”
It was Ty’s turn to be taciturn with his response. “There wasn’t much left for me in the city,” he said.
It wasn’t exactly true, but it was true enough. Once Ishantil had threatened to erupt, and he had started to vacate, he had found that there was really nothing else here for him. And then Bingham’s shop had burned, leaving him with nothing. But it was more than that. It was about Ty coming to understand what it meant for him to be a Tecal.
The smoke dragon fluttered in his belly again, as if the dragon wanted to alert him to something. Ty didn’t know what it was and didn’t know if the dragon remained active on his behalf, or if the dragon simply became active from time to time.
He finished his tea, looking at the lacquered box, before smiling at Maeve. “I’ll come and visit you before I leave.”
“Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, Ty.”
“I do appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
She nodded. “I know you do. It’s why I keep holding out hope for you.”
