Embers of Destruction

by J. Scott Savage

  “The monarch’s been controlling our parents’ minds the whole time?” Hallie whispered. “It’s not that they want to serve the dragons. They don’t have any choice.”

  Michael rubbed his temples as if trying to work out a bad headache. “That’s why I’ve felt so strange lately. I’m getting older, so the white dragon is gaining control of my mind. If I stay here much longer, I’ll end up a mindless slave like the rest of them.”

  “But you don’t have to,” Kallista said. “You can escape. Take your boat and sail north. You’d have a good chance of getting away without anyone seeing you.”

  “Is that what you’re doing?” Alex asked. “Escaping?”

  “We’re regrouping,” he said, but his voice lacked conviction, and he heard the lie in his words along with everyone else. They weren’t strong enough to fight against the monarch and the rest of the dragons in San Francisco. When they left, they wouldn’t be coming back.

  Alex ran his fingers through his dark hair. “So you’re going to abandon us—us and our families. We’ll be slaves to the monarch. With all the new white dragons in the lab, it will probably have more control over us than ever.”

  Trenton clenched his teeth. “What other choice do we have? You should get away too. All of you. Save yourselves while you can.”

  Angus, who had been following the conversation with an intense concentration, stood up. “No.”

  “No, what?” Trenton asked.

  Angus folded his arms across his broad chest. His hair was a mess. He had cuts and bruises on his arms and face, but he stood staring straight ahead as if dragons would fly around him, as if mountains would move rather than stand in his way. “No, I’m not going with you.”

  “What do you mean?” Simoni asked. “You can’t stay here.”

  Angus clenched his jaw. “I can’t run away. I just can’t.”

  “It’s not running away,” Trenton said. “We tried and we failed. There’s nothing else we can do.”

  Angus inhaled until it looked as if his chest might burst. When he spoke, it was in a tone of voice Trenton had never heard him use before—as if he’d been holding something inside him for a hundred years and it had finally broken loose.

  He held Trenton’s gaze. “I’ve never been as smart as you or Simoni. I wasn’t ever going to be a mechanic. I would have been terrible at growing things. I probably would have managed to mess up working in the mines, and that’s just digging in the ground. The only thing I’ve ever been good at is fighting.” He stuck out his chin. “And if fighting the dragons means I can protect the people I care about, then that’s what I am going to do.”

  “We fought the dragons,” Trenton said. “And we lost.”

  “No,” Angus said. “We haven’t lost. Not yet. Not while we still have our dragons, and each other.” He turned to Simoni and shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m not done fighting for you yet.”

  Simoni squeezed Angus’s hand and smiled at him. “I’ll go with you.”

  Kallista ran her fingers through her hair. “My father is still in the city.”

  Plucky scuffed a toe across the floor. “I wouldn’t mind having a go at them rusty buzzards again if I thought we had a chance.”

  “But we don’t,” Clyde said. “We’d be outnumbered at least a hundred to one, maybe two hundred. And that’s not even counting the white dragon.”

  Trenton looked from one person to another. “How many of you want to go back and fight?”

  Simoni and Angus raised their hands.

  “Who wants to leave?”

  Clyde and Plucky raised their hands.

  Trenton turned to Kallista. “What about you?”

  She thought for a moment before moving to stand with Angus and Simoni. “I can’t leave my father alone.”

  Three to fight, two to leave.

  “What do you want to do?” Simoni asked.

  Trenton started to speak, then stopped. There was no good answer. Clyde was right. Fighting the dragons would be beyond difficult, but it would be totally impossible if only part of the group was fighting. They’d been lucky to escape the first time they flew into the city; they wouldn’t make it out a second time.

  On the other hand, what Angus said made sense. There was a time when you had to do the right thing even if you didn’t think there was much chance of success. He glanced toward Alex.

  “I can’t tell you what to do,” Alex said. “But we aren’t deserting our families.”

  “Right,” JoeBob added.

  Hallie lifted her hands. “If there’s anything we can do to help you . . .”

  The Runt Patrol had helped him every time he asked. Could he really abandon them now?

  “What if we did have a plan?” he asked. “Some way to trick the dragons or strike an important blow?”

  “I’m listening,” Clyde said.

  “What kind of contrivance you got in mind?” Plucky asked.

  Trenton didn’t actually have a plan. Every angle he considered seemed doomed to fail. It all came down to the white dragon. If they could stop it, free the minds of the adults in the city, then the people would have the free will to make their own choices. Maybe one of them could even get into the lab and destroy the other white dragons before they grew any larger.

  But how did you kill something that strong? He thought back to everything he’d seen in the lab. How the scientists had created the white dragon in the first place. Was there some weakness, some flaw, he could exploit?

  He’d always thought he was creative—maybe even an inventor—but now that he needed to invent a plan that would make a difference, he couldn’t come up with a thing.

  He looked out one of the windows at the gray morning fog that engulfed the island, and something clicked in his brain. What looked like fog but wasn’t? And why did thinking about fog make him think of Clyde? A hint of an idea danced at the edges of his brain. Something to do with the white dragon’s DNA and a comment Simoni had made about—

  His mouth dropped open, and all the pieces snapped together into a single, crazy, ingenious, idiotic, amazing plan.

  He drew everyone to him. “Okay, people, listen up.”

  Kallista nearly screamed when Trenton told her what he needed. “It’s impossible. It took me two weeks to put the first turbo in Ladon. Now you want me to build two—in a day?”

  “We don’t have a day,” Trenton said. “I’d say we have maybe three hours—four, tops—before the fog burns off. Once it does, the dragons, the guards, everyone will know where we are.”

  “Three hours?” Kallista gritted her teeth. “I’m a mechanic, not a . . . a whatever it is that could build and install two turbochargers in three hours.”

  “They don’t have to be perfect,” Trenton said. “They just need to work once.”

  “Maybe if we was to—” Plucky began, but Kallista shook her head.

  “I’d need at least ten trained mechanics to even have a chance.”

  “I’ve got nine who are ready to help,” Alex said. He rolled up his sleeves and patted his tool belt. “Tell us what you need.”

  Kallista blew her hair out of her face and shook her head. She pointed her finger at Trenton. “You’re crazy.”

  He grinned at her.

  Kallista and Plucky put the Runt Patrol to work immediately, scavenging parts and gathering tools. The sound of hammering and clanging filled the warehouse as Kallista supervised what was going to be a slapdash job that only had a twenty-five percent chance of working. It was difficult to get more than two mechanics inside one of the dragons at the same time; fortunately, the Runt Patrol was used to working in tight spaces.

  Simoni, Clyde, and Angus approached Trenton.

  “What can we do?” Simoni asked.

  Trenton limped outside the building where the sound wasn’t as deafenin
g. “Simoni, you’re the best strategist in the group. I have the start of a plan, but I need you to refine it. Angus, we’ll be lucky to get one shot at the monarch. I want you to take it.”

  They both nodded.

  “What about me?” Clyde asked.

  Trenton gripped his friend’s arm. “This plan is going to be a long shot at best. Your artistic skills would give it a better chance, but I don’t want to pressure you into doing something you don’t think you can handle.”

  “I told you before,” Clyde said. “I won’t let anyone take what I love away from me. I think my paints are still in Rounder.”

  Trenton knelt in the dirt and began to draw. It reminded him of the night before they’d discovered the city. He’d drawn his plans in the dirt that time as well, trying to convince Angus his idea was best.

  Only this time he wasn’t trying to convince anyone of anything. Instead, he showed them what he was thinking and asked for their opinions. This time, instead of leaning against a tree chewing a pine needle, Angus paid close attention.

  As Trenton revealed his idea, Simoni’s eyes grew wide. “That’s brilliant!”

  “I have you to thank for it,” Trenton said.

  Simoni laughed. “I had no idea you’d use it like this, though.” She nodded to what Trenton had drawn. “May I?”

  “Of course,” Trenton said, leaning back.

  Simoni erased one of his lines and moved another. “I think if we come in like this, we’ll have the best chance of arriving unseen. Once the other dragons realize what we’re up to, we’ll need a distraction.”

  “Plucky and I can take care of that,” Clyde said.

  Angus studied what Simoni had drawn. “We’ll need to shoot from here?”

  “Yes,” Simoni said. “We have to give the white dragon everything we’ve got the first time.”

  Angus cracked his knuckles. “I won’t miss.”

  As Angus and Clyde left to prepare for their parts, Simoni smiled at Trenton. “I knew you were the right one to lead us.”

  “But I’m a terrible leader,” Trenton said. “Everything I’ve tried has failed.”

  Simoni shook her head. “History doesn’t judge leaders on how many times they fall. It judges them on how many times they get up.”

  • • •

  By the time they were ready to leave, the fog was beginning to thin to the west. Another thirty minutes and it would be impossible to approach the white tower unseen.

  Everyone was gathered outside the building. Alex and the rest of the Runt Patrol looked exhausted but proud. Trenton buckled himself into his seat on Ladon’s back and glanced at his friends already aboard Devastation and Rounder. “Everyone ready?”

  “Ready!” the other five called. He barely recognized them. They’d already been beaten up from the night before, but now, with Clyde’s assistance, they looked like they’d gone through a meat grinder. Every face had at least one black eye or split lip, and blood dripped from ears and noses. Even the flight jackets and helmets that hadn’t taken damage looked burned, torn, and battered.

  The mechanical dragons weren’t any better. Although they were in perfect flying condition, each had been camouflaged to look like it had taken heavy damage. Trenton knew it was fake, and he still felt nervous taking the machines in the air.

  “Good luck,” Alex called from where he stood with the other kids.

  Graysen raised a fist in the air, and Lizzy shouted, “Before you shoot the monarch, look it in the eye and tell him ‘This one’s for the Runt Patrol.’”

  “Will do,” Angus promised.

  “You guys better get going before the fog completely clears,” Trenton said.

  “And miss the fight?” JoeBob shook his head. He pointed to the lighthouse. “We’ll be up there watching every minute of the action.”

  “But if this plan fails, the dragons are going to come straight here. The white dragon could start controlling Alex and Michael any day.”

  “Then don’t fail,” Alex said.

  Kallista glanced up at the sky. “We need to leave.”

  “Right.” Trenton put his hands to his mouth and called, “On my count—three, two, one.”

  In single file, the three mechanical dragons raced across the ground and lifted off from Alcatraz Island.

  Clyde, wispy hair blowing back from his forehead. Plucky, black hair glistening, shoulders firm—telling the world there wasn’t a wall she couldn’t scale, a lock she couldn’t pick.

  Simoni followed close behind, racing Devastation toward the shore until it seemed she and Angus would surely crash into the ocean. Devastation’s wings lifted at the last second, and the dragon’s metal talons skimmed the water, sending a spray of blue and green into the air.

  In the backseat of Devastation, Angus looked like he was heading to a day at the beach. He reached out to catch a handful of Simoni’s hair, and his sun-roughed cheeks pulled into a grin as she turned around and laughed with him. He yanked back on the flight stick, and the two of them spiraled high into the air.

  Last in the group were Trenton and Kallista. They weren’t flashy. They didn’t do any tricks. They operated Ladon as only a pair who has spent many hours together could. Two people and one metal dragon functioning as a single, perfectly coordinated whole.

  Watching his five friends, the sun glinting off the golden skin of their three dragons, Trenton wondered if this was the last time they would fly together.

  He leaned forward and asked Kallista, “Back in Seattle, you told me that sometimes you had to give yourself permission to fail. Is this what you were talking about?”

  Kallista smiled back at him, her face a mixture of real bruises and fake. “Flying off on a mission none of us thinks we can complete with equipment that probably doesn’t work and is completely untested before fighting hundreds of dragons led by a creature that for all we know is invincible? Yeah, I think this qualifies.”

  “Just checking,” Trenton said.

  As they flew into the mist, Devastation took the lead, Ladon dropped behind them, and Rounder took up the rear.

  “Stay tight,” Simoni called. “We can’t afford to lose each other in the fog.”

  Staying as close to the edge of the fog as they dared, the pilots flew their dragons across the bay, listening for the sound of the crashing waves to guide them along the edge of the cliff. After a few minutes, Simoni called back, “I think we’re close.”

  “Let’s find out,” Trenton shouted. “Remember to make it look real.”

  One by one, they flew out of the fog. As soon as they appeared, the first alarms sounded. Guards along the edge of the water shouted to one another. Telescopes reflected sunlight as they turned to track the mechanical dragons. Shutters on the towers began swiveling open, and dragons raced out, heading in their direction.

  Trenton cut back the power to his engine and angled Ladon’s wings to make it look like he was barely able to stay in the air. They needed to buy a couple of minutes to pull off the plan. He hoped it would work.

  The monarch looked out from the top of the white tower, and Trenton and Kallista flew toward him making awkward dives and swoops. Although he didn’t look back at the others, Trenton knew his friends were doing the same.

  He raised his hands and shouted toward the white tower. “Don’t attack us. We give up.”

  The white dragon stretched out its wings and opened its fanged mouth. “The great adventurers have come to grovel?”

  “We surrender,” Trenton yelled, not having to fake the fear in his voice. “Our dragons are damaged. I think Simoni is about to pass out from loss of blood. Let us land, and we’ll come quietly.”

  To his right, Simoni dropped toward the ocean. She pulled up, then dropped again, each time edging closer to the tower.

  “Your dragons?” the monarch said. “Everything in this city is
mine—including you. Why should I let you live?”

  Trenton circled, waiting for Simoni to get closer to the white dragon. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Plucky lift a red ball out of a bag on her lap and drop it into Rounder’s furnace.

  “Please,” Trenton called. “We ask for your mercy.”

  The monarch chuckled. “That is your mistake,” it said with a wicked grin. “I don’t have any mercy.” Nearly twenty dragons had landed at the base of the tower, and at least a hundred more were on the way. The white dragon raised its bearded chin. “Kill them all.”

  “Go!” Trenton screamed. “Now!”

  Kallista dove toward the dragons that were taking off from the cliff on the monarch’s command. Trenton pulled Ladon out of his erratic flopping, spread the dragon’s wings, and laid down a stream of fire.

  At the same time, Simoni and Angus raced toward the monarch, shooting one fireball after another.

  Angus raised both fists above his head, his eyes bright with fury. “This is for my family. And my friends. And every person ever killed or taken captive by a dragon!” The fireballs bounced harmlessly off the white dragon’s scales.

  Plucky and Clyde flew over the cliff, raining attacks on the dragons below them before soaring toward the city.

  “This is for Seattle,” Plucky yelled.

  About half of the dragons turned to follow Rounder. The others went for Ladon and Devastation.

  Kallista and Trenton didn’t need to speak. They knew where they were going. Banking right, they soared over the whitecapped waves, drawing as many dragons as they could away from the white tower.

  A pack of dragons angled to cut them off.

  There was no time to think, only to react.

  Simoni and Angus joined the battle hard and fast, fireballs bellowing out of Devastation’s mouth as fast as Angus could hit the trigger. They drew the dragons to them like a target and were immediately enveloped in a mass of teeth and claws.

  Rounder curved over the city directly into the horde coming toward them. Clyde and Plucky managed to shoot a few fireballs, but they were quickly overwhelmed.