Eye of the Oracle

chapter 11

DRAGONS IN OUR MIDST

Sapphira basked in the warmth of the portal’s fire as it spun dancing arcs of orange across her view of Bonnie. The foster care agency faded away, and, seconds later, the familiar surroundings of her home reappeared the enormous museum, hers and Acacia’s bedding, and stacks of books waiting to be read for the hundredth time.

She stepped out of the swirling column of brilliant white light, the dimensional portal that once led to the snake-infested swamp around Morgan’s island, and turned toward it. As dozens of white eddies twirled independently within the larger vortex, she lifted one in her palm and gently guided it out of the column, staring at it in wonder. What were these amazing portals made out of, and what did the loss of color mean? Could she now travel wherever she pleased and return to this spot?

She stepped back from the column and whispered to it. “Expand, please.” The portal slowly widened into her viewing screen, and the sound of a train clacking across steel rails filled the chamber. Light flooded her view, and vague shadows congealed into shapes cushioned seats lining the inside of a railcar, a uniformed steward checking paperwork on a clipboard, and a girl with blonde-streaked hair stuffing a bag into an overhead bin.

Bonnie slid into a window seat, leaning forward to make room for her backpack. She pulled the hem of her thick sweatshirt down over the waistband of her jeans and settled her head against the window. As she bounced in time with the train’s rhythmic clatter, she gazed at the scenery that graced the beautiful state of Montana.

During a stop at a small depot just outside of Missoula, Bonnie watched each person who climbed aboard her car. Whenever a female entered, she brushed off the seat next to her, yet, no one took her up on her silent invitation. No one even looked her way.

Finally, a girl Bonnie’s age walked in with her head bent low. Her gaze brushed quickly past Bonnie, and she sat in the window seat across the aisle. After fumbling with the zipper of a duffle bag, the girl opened it just far enough to reveal a colorful blanket, a Tigger blanket. She pulled out a book and zipped her bag back up.

Bonnie moved into the aisle seat and leaned across. “Carly?” she whispered.

The girl jerked her head around. Her eyes grew larger, and a beaming smile spread across her face. “Bonnie?”

Bonnie jumped into the seat next to Carly’s and hugged her friend close. Neither one laughed or squealed. They just held each other quietly for nearly a minute.

Carly sniffed and gazed at Bonnie through teary eyes. “Bonnie, I’ve thought about you every day for four years. I’ve never had another friend like you, and when I found out I had to move to Pittsburgh, I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I thought about you a lot, too.” Bonnie pulled a pack of tissues from her pocket and gave it to Carly. “Why do you have to go to Pittsburgh?”

Carly pulled the last tissue out of the pack and dabbed her eyes. “Well, my parents have been fighting for years, so they decided to ”

“No.” Bonnie laid a hand on Carly’s shoulder. “Don’t tell me any more.”

“Why not?” Carly pinched the empty tissue pack and dangled it in front of Bonnie. “They said it happens all the time.”

Bonnie took the plastic and crinkled it into a wad. “I . . . I don’t want to believe it happens all the time. I want to believe that maybe someday I’ll find . . .” She stopped and pressed her tightened fist over her lips.

“It’s okay,” Carly said, laying her hand on Bonnie’s. “I understand.”

Bonnie lowered her hand and smiled weakly. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay. How about where you’re going?”

“Me?” Bonnie cleared her throat, and her face reddened. “My first stop is Charleston, West Virginia.” Her voice slowed and cracked. “My mother died . . . so I have to . . .”

Carly gasped and covered her mouth. “Oh, Bonnie! I’m so sorry!” She rubbed Bonnie’s arm tenderly. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

Bonnie gave her a trembling smile. “Thank you.” After a few seconds, she reached into the bin above her seat and withdrew a spiral journal from her duffle bag. As she sat back down, she flipped through some of the dog-eared pages near the front. “Tell you what. I’ll show you some of the prayers I prayed for you.”

Carly craned her neck to get a closer look. “You prayed for me?”

“See here?” Bonnie pointed at the top of a page. “I prayed that we’d see each other someday, and now look what happened.”

“God answers prayers for little things like that?”

Bonnie leaned against Carly. “Friends getting back together is not a little thing. I wasn’t allowed to write to you before, but now I can, so we’ll write to each other and be pen pals for life.”

As the girls hugged again, Sapphira stepped farther away from the screen and turned toward Acacia’s bed. The top blanket was still folded back for her eventual homecoming.

She let out a long sigh. Maybe Bonnie was right. Maybe praying for Acacia to come home would be the answer. She had returned once before, even after she had given her up for dead. Maybe it could happen again. And what about Paili? Could she somehow be brought back from the dead, too? And she could never forget Elam. If only they could reunite, maybe she could finally tell him what she had been thinking for thousands of years.

She sat down in front of the screen and hugged her knees close to her chest. The train scene zipped by, and, as the images accelerated, the details melted away. Days in the land of the living passed as only minutes ticked away in Sapphira’s chamber. With another promise to write to each other, Bonnie and Carly went their separate ways. Bonnie arrived in Charleston, West Virginia, and transferred from foster home to foster home until she moved to Castlewood. There, she met a young man named Billy Bannister, the son of Jared, who was once the great dragon, Clefspeare, still alive centuries after his transformation by Merlin.

Adventure after adventure swept before Sapphira’s eyes. The viewport displayed an animated montage of highlights that followed the lives of Bonnie, Billy, a wise gentleman named Professor Charles Hamilton, and a funny, yet heroic young man named Walter Foley, as they battled Devin, Palin, and Morgan.

Bonnie soon met Ashley Stalworth, the daughter of Makaidos and Thigocia. With the help of Ashley’s technological genius, Billy and Bonnie rescued Barlow, Edward, and the other loyal knights from the candlestone, and the destruction of that prison allowed Merlin to escape, as well. Edward reclaimed the name of Edmund, finally honoring his father with his heroic efforts in a great battle against Devin that followed the candlestone’s demise.

Then, guided back to England by Professor Hamilton, Billy and Bonnie ventured into the portal in Patrick’s ancient chamber. Bonnie found Shiloh in the sixth circle of Hades, where she had lived for forty years without aging a day. Shiloh survived because the seed Sapphira had planted sprouted and produced a fruit every morning, keeping her from starving. During her rescue, the spirit of Clefspeare was cast into the abyss and absorbed into Dragons’ Rest through the Great Key, the gem in her pendant, causing it to change from white to red again.

Billy and Bonnie reunited Shiloh with her father, Patrick, though their efforts brought about the release of Samyaza and his demonic followers. In the seventh circle, Billy discovered the bones of the dragons who had turned human, those who were murdered by Devin after their transformation. He revived them, restoring their dragon bodies, and they all burst out of Hades to battle Samyaza.

When the viewport revealed Billy as the new dragon king, the rapid succession of scenes finally slowed. He and Bonnie prepared to enter Dragons’ Rest through the gem in Shiloh’s pendant. Professor Hamilton held Excalibur, making ready to slash its disintegrating beam through the two dimensional travelers so they could enter the rubellite.

Sapphira stood and drew close to the screen. She hovered her fingers over the images, awed by the miraculous way everything had fallen into place. The prophecy the Eye of the Oracle revealed to Makaidos so long ago had finally come to pass. Now it was time for an oracle of fire to open the portal and allow the king entry into the domain of dead dragons.

While focusing her mind on the pendant’s gem, Sapphira laid her hand on the screen. “Collapse!” she ordered. The screen rolled up into a column. She jumped in and grabbed a stream of swirling light. Instantly, every image around her shattered, and a new scene took shape, empty crystalline walls flushed with scarlet hues. In front of her, veiled in red by a glassy screen, Professor Hamilton pulled back the sword. She gulped. Obviously the portal had transported her inside the gem, just as she had hoped, but what should she do now?

“Hurry, Sapphira!”

Sapphira spun around. A man holding a foot-tall hourglass stood in the midst of a red fog, but even the dense mist couldn’t hide his identity. She clasped her hands and smiled. “Master Mer ”

“Ignite your fire,” Merlin shouted, “and command the portal to open!”

Sapphira raised her arms. “Give me light!” A raging flame sprouted in her palm and swallowed her hand with fire. “How do I command it to open?”

Merlin pointed at the red glass leading to the outer world. “Lay your hand on the wall of the rubellite and shout, ‘Ephphatha.’ Give it all you’ve got.”

Sapphira pressed her palm on the glass. Just as Professor Hamilton began to swing the blade, she shouted as loud as she could, “Ephphatha!”

The flames spread out in a wide circle, fading the red glass to pink, then to white. Professor Hamilton sliced the beam through Billy and Bonnie, and the sword’s shaft of light wrapped around their bodies. The two teenagers dissolved into sparkling silhouettes that meshed together and swirled toward the screen like a silvery ribbon.

Sapphira pulled back her hand. The white hole continued to widen, and the energy swirls poured through.

Breathing a sigh, Merlin set his hourglass on the gem’s floor. “You did it!”

Sapphira whispered to the fire. “That’s enough.” When the flames died away, she laid her hand on her chest. “Whew! That was close!”

Still recognizable in their energy form, Billy and Bonnie stood in the midst of the red gem, blinking rapidly as though they couldn’t see anything.

Merlin nodded at Sapphira. “Excuse me for a moment.” He reached for Billy’s hand and laid a ring in his palm. The ring dissolved into the boy’s sparks. “Take this,” Merlin said, “you will need it later.” The prophet leaned closer and whispered something else to Billy, but Sapphira couldn’t hear his muffled words.

Billy and Bonnie passed through another screen on the opposite side of their entry point and disappeared.

Merlin wiped his brow. “The dragon messiah has now entered Dragons’ Rest.”

Sapphira pointed at each side of the gem. “So the way they came in leads to the land of the living, and the way they left leads to Dragons’ Rest?”

“Your powers of observation are right on the mark!” Merlin bowed. “I am glad to finally meet you formally, Sapphira Adi.”

Sapphira dipped her knee. “And I’m glad to finally meet you, Master Merlin.”

Merlin’s aged face flashed a proud smile. “You recognized me!”

She straightened and grinned. “I’ve been spying on you.”

Merlin laughed. “Apparently we’ve been watching each other.” He pointed at their window to the living world. “Here comes the other witness!”

A new swirl of radiance streamed through the same hole Billy and Bonnie had entered and coalesced into the shape of a boy with two flapping canopies on his back.

Sapphira clapped her hands. “It’s Gabriel!”

As the sparkling shape thickened, its glow faded. Within seconds, Gabriel appeared, looking the same age and wearing the same clothes as the day he stood to face his executioners at Patrick’s estate. He raised each leg in turn. “I feel like I weigh a ton!”

“You’re solid again!” Sapphira lunged and wrapped her arms around his torso. “I’m so glad to see you!”

Merlin embraced both of them in his long arms. “In a few moments, Billy will lead the faithful dragons out of Dragons’ Rest and into this rubellite.” He pulled back and pointed at Sapphira and Gabriel. “You two have been chosen to bear witness to a covenant the dragons must make in order to pass through to the other side. As they enter, Gabriel will try to identify his father. If Makaidos doesn’t come, Gabriel will enter Dragons’ Rest and search for him there. But he will have to make haste. According to Enoch, that dimension’s annihilation will be swift and complete.”

Sapphira stepped up to the glass leading to Dragons’ Rest and peered inside. “So you don’t know who’s in there?”

“Only a few that I recognized from the outside. My window to their world is quite limited.”

“Should we do anything while we’re waiting?” Gabriel asked.

“No.” Merlin picked up the hourglass and gazed at the trickling sand. “Time is passing far more quickly in Dragons’ Rest than it is in here, so Billy will finish his work shortly.”

Gabriel huffed on the glass and wiped it with his sleeve. “Is that him coming this way?”

Merlin waved them back. “I must speak to him alone. Ponder what you have heard, and I will return in a few moments.”

Sapphira and Gabriel strolled to the glass wall on the other side of the gem, the barrier that separated them from the land of the living. Sapphira leaned against it and nodded toward the opposite wall, now veiled by a curtain of red mist. “Did someone tell you to look for your father in Dragons’ Rest?”

“Yes. Merlin says he’s not in heaven, hell, or any of the circles of seven.” Gabriel shrugged. “We couldn’t think of anywhere else to look.”

Sapphira rubbed his arm tenderly. “If he’s in there, he’ll follow Billy. Don’t worry about that.”

“You’re probably right.” Gabriel’s wings lifted and stretched out. “But if I don’t see him, I’m going in. I’m not taking any chances.”

Sweeping his arms back and forth, Merlin parted the curtain of fog. With his head bowed low, he pointed at the Dragons’ Rest screen. “Behold. The messiah comes in the arms of the virgin.”

Sapphira dashed through the fog and peered through the glass. Veiled by the crimson barrier, Bonnie shuffled toward the gem, carrying Billy in her arms.

Gabriel joined her at the screen. “Did someone kill him?”

“I’m afraid so.” Merlin wiped a tear from his withered cheek. “He knew this fate was possible, yet he went there willingly to save the dragons from doom.”

“If he’s a messiah” Sapphira paused through a throat cramp “will he rise from the dead?”

Merlin pointed at the world of the living through the other screen. “It depends on two teenagers out there who are doing everything in their power to battle against death. I think you will meet Ashley and Walter soon enough, but theirs is a story that must wait.”

As Bonnie drew closer, Sapphira stepped back from the glass. “Can we do anything to help?”

“Exactly what God has called us to do, what he has spent centuries preparing us to do. It is time for the two of you to create a covenant veil and complete the Great Key.”

“How do we do that?” Gabriel asked.

Merlin pressed his hand on Sapphira’s shoulder. “You stand here.” He pulled Gabriel parallel to the glass wall, separating him several paces from Sapphira. “And you stand here.” He raised both hands. “Lift up a hand toward each other, and as witnesses to this covenant, you will shout the vow all dragons must believe in order to pass through to the other side.”

“Vow?” Sapphira wrinkled her forehead. “What vow?”

“The name you so recently learned. The name that imbedded the fire within your soul. Then Gabriel will answer with the same words.”

Sapphira and Gabriel lifted their hands. A stream of flames shot from Sapphira’s fingers to Gabriel’s, creating a fiery arc.

Bonnie, her glittering silhouette carrying Billy’s, passed through the Dragons’ Rest screen and shuffled into the foggy chamber. Red sparks dripped from Billy’s side and splashed on the gem’s floor. She paused and looked around, as if lost.

“Now, Sapphira! Now!”

Sapphira took in a deep breath and shouted, “Jehovah-Yasha!”

“Jehovah-Yasha!” Gabriel echoed.

The shouts pushed the mist inward, producing two scarlet sound waves that collided under the center of the arc. At the point of impact, tongues of fire stretched out in all directions and licked up the fog. When every trace of mist disappeared, a wall of red light congealed between Gabriel and Sapphira and pulsed like a beating heart.

Bonnie’s face suddenly brightened, and she walked through the shimmering wall and out of the rubellite.

“Stay steady!” Merlin said. “Here come the dragons!”

Another human entered and instantly transformed into a mass of sparkling energy. As he passed by Sapphira, his bright blue eyes met hers.

“Hilidan!” She smiled so widely her cheeks hurt. When Hilidan pierced the throbbing veil, his energy field melded into it and passed through on the other side in the shape of a dragon, shining more brightly than ever. Then, with a sizzle and a pop, he penetrated the screen to the world of the living and disappeared.

Several more figures passed by, and Sapphira called out the names of the ones she recognized Zera, Shachar, and Clirkus but they didn’t seem to hear her as they penetrated the covenant veil.

When the parade of escapees came to an end, and the last sparkling form exited through the screen, Merlin sighed. “It is finished. You can lower your hands now.”

Gabriel and Sapphira rested their arms, but the arc of fire remained suspended in the air. The covenant veil continued to pulse, radiating a steady beam of light toward the living world. The gem’s interior, now clear of fog, seemed to glow with a light of its own as if the walls had been brushed with a million glowing crystals.

“My father didn’t come through.” Gabriel slumped his shoulders. “I’m sure of it.”

Sapphira peered through the gem’s entry into Dragons’ Rest. Inside, a solitary man stood on a stage that faced dozens of rows of chairs. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and paced in front of the screen.

“Could that be Makaidos?” Sapphira asked.

Gabriel cupped his hands around his eyes and peered in. “Dad’s not that tall, and his jaw is more rounded.”

“Roxil didn’t come through, either.” She clutched Gabriel’s sleeve. “We need to find both of them.”

“We?” Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t think you should go. If that place is going to blow up ”

“Enough talk.” Merlin waved both hands at the screen. “You may both go, but you must hurry. And remember, Roxil cannot leave through this passage unless she believes the covenant you declared.”

Sapphira turned to the translucent veil. As it continued to throb, somehow it seemed inviting yet forbidding at the same time. “Isn’t there any other way?”

“For a dragon to gain eternal salvation?” Merlin shook his head emphatically. “No.”

Sapphira laid her hand on the glass, and her fingers passed right through. “Are you going to stay here and wait for us?”

“I must attend to a very important matter in the world of the living. You see, Morgan has yet to reap the harvest of destruction she has sown for thousands of years. I am going to send her to her final resting place. Then, since the gateway to Dragons’ Rest has been torn open, I will rescue my wife, and we will ascend into heaven together.” Merlin passed through the covenant veil and disappeared.

Tears welling in her eyes, Sapphira backed through the barrier and whispered, “I didn’t even get to say good-bye.”

Gabriel followed her. “Me, either. He seemed to be in a hurry.”

When she emerged on the other side, a cool wood floor greeted her bare feet. “Is this a theatre?” she whispered.

“I think so. I’ve only been to a couple of movies, though, and it’s been a long time, so I’m not sure.”

“Same here. People looked at me funny. Blind girls don’t go to movies very often.”

“Or boys who refuse to take off their backpacks.” Gabriel nodded toward the side of the stage. “There’s that tall guy we saw. He’s talking to two old ladies. Let’s scoot.”

“Shouldn’t we warn them?”

“Since they’re here, they’ve probably already been told.” Gabriel took her hand. “If this place is going to get nuked, we’d better hustle.”

“I guess you’re right.” Sapphira’s foot nudged something that slid across the floor.

“What’s this?” Gabriel asked, stooping. “A knife?”

Sapphira rubbed her finger along the wooden hilt. A hint of dark blood stained the rough stone blade. “I’ve seen it before. I think it’s Morgan’s.”

He slid it between his belt and trousers. “It might come in handy.”

As he led the way down the stage steps, Sapphira noticed his back, his wingless back. “Gabriel! Your wings! They’re gone!”

Gabriel never broke stride. “Yeah. Dimensional travel rocks. Maybe they’ll show up at baggage claim.”

After they exited the theatre and ran out to the village streets, Gabriel stopped and swung his head from side to side. “Any idea where to go?”

“Probably the town square. I’ve been to a reflection of this place in the sixth circle, so I know it pretty well.” She nodded toward a clock tower that rose above the tops of the other buildings. “It’s that way.”

Gabriel marched toward the tower. “I’ll recognize my father, but do you know what Roxil looks like?”

“I know what she used to look like, but we can ask around for Jasmine. That’s her name here.”

The ground trembled. A window in a nearby feed store shattered, and a crack split the road between Gabriel and Sapphira. Gabriel leaped over the widening rift and grabbed Sapphira’s arm. “Hurry!”

Running side by side, they followed dusty cobblestones that led to a broader road and then to a city square. In the central garden, a statue of a man riding a horse stood watch over an array of colorful flowers, and a rope lay over his outstretched arm with a hangman’s noose dangling underneath. Several people milled about, and a woman knelt next to a body lying on the road.

Gabriel let go of Sapphira. “I guess they didn’t feel the quake here.”

She ran up to the corpse the body of a petite female. A gash in the front of her dress revealed a gaping wound in her bosom. Sapphira gulped. “Naamah!”

The kneeling woman stood and faced them. Her stern, angular features hadn’t changed in the slightest. “So, you have come to bring our destruction, have you?”

When Gabriel joined them, Sapphira latched on to his wrist and squeaked. “It’s good to see you again . . . uh . . . Jasmine.”

Jasmine glared at Gabriel. “You’re not an oracle of fire, are you? The prophecy said that there would be two oracles, not one.”

Gabriel pointed at her. “Listen, Roxil, or Jasmine, or whatever your name is now, I may not be an oracle of fire, and I don’t know about any prophecy, but this place is about to blow, and I need to find my . . . I mean, your father.”

The ground shook again. Two more windows cracked, and a chimney toppled, spilling broken bricks down an angled roof. Sapphira stooped to keep her balance, and Jasmine dropped to her knees. The people in the streets scrambled in every direction.

When the tremor settled, Jasmine rose slowly to her feet. “You won’t find my father here. He left a long time ago, and he never came back.”

A fountain of fire erupted in the city hall building, spewing wiggling ribbons of flaming debris onto the street. As sparkling ash rained down, the three backed toward the statue to avoid the embers.

“Merlin predicted this,” Sapphira said, swatting at the ash. “We have to get you out of here before it’s too late!”

Jasmine sneered. “I should have known Merlin had something to do with this. He has been plotting to kill dragons all along, and now he has arranged our apocalypse.”

“Merlin set up the way of escape!” Sapphira grabbed a fistful of Jasmine’s sleeve. “This place is about to burn! What’s it going to take to get you to change your mind?”

“Truth!” Jasmine shook away Sapphira’s grip and pointed at Naamah’s body. “She killed that so-called dragon messiah with the same dagger that took her own life. A dead messiah cannot save anyone from this God-forsaken place. It is hopeless. There is no way out.”

“Really?” Sapphira narrowed her eyes. “Then how did your father leave?”

Jasmine nodded at the statue in the garden. “He wandered over there in sort of a daze, saying something about a red glow, but Brogan and I never saw anything. Then, he just vanished.”

“And he became human.” Sapphira clasped her fingers together. “He rejoined your mother, who also took a human form, and they had two children, Gabriel and Ashley, your brother and sister.”

Jasmine’s expression softened, and her voice lost its sharp edge. “So, they’re a happy family now, I suppose.”

Sapphira shook her head. “A slayer killed your father and mother, but Billy risked his life and resurrected your mother from a dragon graveyard.”

Jasmine glanced at the hangman’s noose. “Billy resurrected her?”

“Yes. She’s alive now and is a dragon again, but your father’s spirit is missing.” She nodded at Gabriel. “That’s why your brother is here looking for him, and we were hoping you’d want to help.”

Jasmine’s lip trembled slightly, but she quickly firmed it. “Of course I want to help, but there are a couple of important obstacles.” She extended a finger. “First, I’m dead.” She extended another finger. “Second, apparently you have to trust in a human to get out of here, and I haven’t seen any good reason for doing that.”

Gabriel stepped up to Jasmine and stood toe-to-toe. “I’ve been listening to you jabber long enough.” He extended his own finger. “Our father was dead, too, and that didn’t stop him from coming back to life.” He flashed all four fingers and began lowering each one as he continued. “This Billy guy is human, and he died trying to save you. Merlin’s human, and he sent Billy in here to save all the dragons. I’m human, and do you think I’m going to gain anything by risking my own life to argue with a stubborn dragon?” He lowered the last finger and formed a fist. “And Sapphira’s human, and she has more love than all of us combined. Without her, I would have been dead, Billy couldn’t have come here to rescue dragons, and you wouldn’t be getting another chance to crack your cold heart of stone.”

The ground suddenly lurched. Sapphira fell on her seat, and Jasmine toppled backward into the garden. Gabriel kept his balance, flailing his arms as he rode out the bucking cobblestones. When the quake settled, Gabriel helped Sapphira up, but the entire garden area broke away from the street and began to sink, taking Jasmine and the statue with it.

Gabriel dove for the edge and reached down into the growing chasm. “Jasmine! Grab my hand! I’ll pull you up!”

Jasmine struggled to her feet and jumped, but her fingertips merely brushed against Gabriel’s. With her second jump, her hand passed several inches too low.

Sapphira dashed along the chasm’s perimeter, jumped down toward the statue, and landed in the rider’s lap. Grabbing the hangman’s rope attached to the horse’s neck, she screamed up at Gabriel. “Catch the noose!”

Gabriel reached both hands. “Toss it!”

Sapphira slung the noose upward. The rope smacked Gabriel in the face, but he managed to latch onto it before it slipped away. “Got it!” he shouted, wrapping it around his wrists.

Sapphira clambered down to the pedestal and extended her hand. “Up here, Jasmine! We can still climb out from the top of the statue!”

Jasmine bent her knees, but the ground suddenly crumbled. She fell forward and grasped the bottom of the statue’s pedestal as it dropped, and her momentum drove the pedestal against the sloping wall, wedging it there.

The weight dragged Gabriel’s body farther out over the pit. He strained against the load, every muscle in his face quivering, and he let out a roar. “The rope’s cutting my wrists!”

“Hang on!” Sapphira yelled.

As Jasmine dangled over a deep pit, purple fumes rose from the blackness, smelling of camphor and garlic, then a voice filtered upward. “Roxil. Come and join me. I have been waiting for you.”

Jasmine twisted her neck and looked down. “Goliath?”

“Yes. Just let go. I will catch you, and we will live together in the true Dragons’ Rest.”

Jasmine spun her head back toward Sapphira, her wild eyes darting all around. The statue lurched down a few inches, jerking one of Jasmine’s hands loose, but it suddenly halted, teetering over the black pit.

Gabriel slid farther. Puffing and grunting, he let out a loud, wordless moan.

Stooping carefully, Sapphira grabbed Jasmine’s wrist. As she pulled, her vision sharpened. Far below, the skeletons of several dragons lay scattered in the midst of a black fog. A huge red dragon stood among the bones and called out, “Please do not abandon me!”

“Don’t listen to him!” Sapphira reached for Jasmine’s flailing arm. “Give me your other hand!”

Gabriel screamed. “I can’t hold on much longer!”

The voice erupted again. “Roxil, I need you! Do not trust the humans. If you climb into Makaidos’s arms, you will be in his clutches forever.”

Sapphira glanced up at the statue’s horseman. Its open arms seemed ready to welcome the company of another rider. As the pedestal tipped further, she reached her free hand down as far as she could and shouted. “You have to make your choice right now!”

Jasmine looked down one more time, then swung up and grabbed Sapphira’s hand. As Sapphira pulled, tongues of fire erupted from the pit and swirled around Jasmine’s feet. With a final grunt, Sapphira hoisted her, and they scrambled up to the side of the rider. With their feet planted on top of the pedestal, they clung to one of his arms.

A huge plume of twisting fire shot up from the depths and swirled around the statue, creating a tall, spinning cylinder of flames. The hangman’s rope ignited and burned to a charred thread, and the statue slid down the side of the chasm wall.

Pushing her snowy hair from her eyes, Sapphira looked through the circular opening at the top of the fiery cylinder. Several feet above her head, Gabriel clung to the lip of the chasm, digging his shoes into the slope.

Sapphira cupped a hand around the side of her mouth. “Gabriel! Jump! It’s your only chance!” As hot wind from the whipping fire snatched her words into the cyclone, the cylinder’s opening squeezed shut. With a loud crack, the statue plunged downward.

Suddenly, Gabriel burst through the wall of fire. He caught the horse’s head and swung up to its back in one motion. Now riding in front of the soldier, he took Sapphira’s hand. “Are we in a portal?”

Sapphira squeezed his fingers. “I think so!”

“Did you make all this fire?”

“No! I have no idea who did it!”

Dry air and streaming flames flowed upward all around. Jasmine locked an arm around Sapphira’s waist, and Gabriel slapped the thigh of the sculptured rider behind him. “Ready to hunt for our father?”

As Jasmine held her dress down with her free hand, a trembling smile broke through, and her voice cracked. “You humans . . . have a strange way . . . of beginning a new adventure.”

Gabriel grinned. “Hang on tight, Sister. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

The downward plunge slowed to a gentle drift. A rectangular hole opened in the fiery wall, revealing a screen similar to the museum room’s viewing port. It displayed Merlin standing at the edge of a precipice with his hand wrapped around the neck of a huge raven. At the bottom of the chasm, a river of magma churned, bright orange and steaming. Merlin struck the bird’s head with a glowing sword, and its feathers burst into flames. He released the raven’s neck, and it immediately attacked him, pecking and clawing his head. Tongues of fire lashed his shoulders and ignited his clothes. Merlin transformed into a glittering lion, snatched the raven in his great jaws, and dangled it over the chasm. With a mighty shake, he cast the raven downward, and it morphed into Morgan’s dark silhouette. Screaming and flailing her arms, she plunged into the boiling river of fire. The splash ignited a towering blaze, and Morgan’s face melted into the stream.

Merlin gazed down at the river and whispered, “Checkmate.” Then, with a turn and a bow of his sparkling lion head, he smiled. “Sapphira Adi, your tormentor is no more. May you live the rest of your years in peace and joy. I will see you again in Paradise.”

Sapphira sniffed and waved. “Good-bye, Merlin. Thank you . . . Thank you for everything.”

Merlin faded away. The screen disappeared, and the hole in the fiery wall closed. The cyclone’s spin suddenly accelerated, whipping the hot air into a frenzy. Sharp pain dug into Sapphira’s arm. A set of claws dragged across her skin and scratched down the side of the statue. A pair of wide red eyes flashed in the center of a scaly brow as a dragon’s face slowly shrank into the darkness below.

Sapphira bent over and grasped a foreleg. “Roxil! Hang on!”

Wings sprouted from Roxil’s back and spread out toward the spinning fire. When the tips brushed against the flames, she pulled her wings tightly against her body.

Sapphira looked upward. “Jehovah-Yasha!” She grunted as she strained against Roxil’s growing weight. “Help me! I can’t hang on much longer!”

The wall of fire contracted and spilled over them. The statue burned away, and all three plunged into a black void. Sapphira’s body erupted in flames. Gabriel, falling next to her, also burst into a fiery column.

The surrounding darkness crumbled and blew away. Sapphira pressed her feet down on a cool stone floor. The flames crackled and shrank into dwindling sparks that scattered around the familiar museum chamber. Standing at her side in his winged form, Gabriel batted away the remaining sparks as if they were pesky gnats. The portal column swirled in front of them, white and shining.

Sapphira clasped her hands together. “We made it! Thank God!”

Gabriel smiled and flicked his thumb toward the rear. “Our hitchhiker made it, too!”

Sapphira spun around. Sitting on its haunches, a tawny dragon stretched its wings and shook off a coat of ashes. It wagged its head back and forth and groaned. “I hope that was just the longest nightmare in history!”

Sapphira laughed. “Wake up, sleepy dragon! It’s time to search for your father.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said, giving his wings a vigorous shake. “We need you to heat up the coffee.”

Roxil breathed a steam-filled sigh. “Very well. I can put up with a couple of humans for a while.”

Gabriel shook a finger at her. “Listen here. You might be a powerful, fire-breathing dragon, but to me you’re just my overgrown, scaly sister. I should ”

“Shhh!” Sapphira grabbed Gabriel’s wrist and whispered. “Just be patient. At least she didn’t go with Goliath, and we might have a long journey ahead of us, so we have to deal with what we’ve got. Besides, sister or not, you shouldn’t argue with a fire-breathing dragon.”

Gabriel firmed his chin and nodded. “Good point. Don’t stoke the dragon.”

Sapphira patted him on the back, and the two walked together to the dragon’s side. “Roxil,” she said, pointing back at the spinning portal, “are you ready to carry a couple of riders to another dimension? I’m not sure what Gabriel’s going to look like when we get there, but we’ll figure out a way to work together.”

“If I must.” Roxil lowered her head to their eye level. “Where will we begin?”

Sapphira pressed a palm against her chest. A fiery glow spread from her fingertips down to the heel of her hand and radiated pulsing white light in a soft elliptical aura. “We’ll begin wherever my dance partner leads me.”

Waving her hands around a spinning column of fire, Acacia guided the vortex down toward a book that lay open on a wooden table. Inside the column, a miniature boy and girl clung to a statue and descended with the flames. Acacia clapped her hands over the top of the column, and the vortex collapsed, setting the pair inside on fire. The two burning figures hovered above the book for a moment, then crumbled into glowing embers that fell onto the pages.

Another pair of hands, larger and wrinkled, closed the book. The hands belonged to a white-haired man who sat across from Acacia. His bushy eyebrows rose high on his broad forehead. “Well done, my child. You have saved the lives of your friends, and you have given a dragon a second chance, an opportunity not normally afforded anyone, whether human or dragon.”

Acacia took the hand of a little girl who sat on the bench next to her. The girl’s eyes gleamed in the dim light cast over the table by a flickering lantern. With only a stack of books piled against one of the stone walls, the stuffy chamber raised memories of her long, pain-filled days in the stark caverns of the underworld. “What happens now, Father Enoch? Will Paili and I go home?”

“I do not know for sure.” Enoch rubbed his hands across the weathered cover of the book. “Time is not like a story. You cannot turn to the back and discover the end of the tale. You have to suffer through life one page at a time.”

“But aren’t you a prophet? Can’t the Eye of the Oracle see the future?”

Enoch shook his head. “I speak only what Jehovah commands me to speak. Whether he writes the final page, reads every page from front to end at the same time, or perfectly predicts what we will write there ourselves, I do not know. It is a mystery far too great for me to comprehend.” He lifted the book’s cover and flipped to the back. “But this much I do know. No matter what happens, Jehovah-Jireh will provide for all your needs, Jehovah-Shammah will be there from the first to the last, and Jehovah-Yasha will deliver you to safety, whether at home with Sapphira or at home with him. You will never be forsaken.”

Paili slid closer and clutched Acacia’s arm. Acacia smiled and laid her hand on the book’s final page. “Then the Eye of the Oracle has spoken?”

Enoch laid his hand over Acacia’s. “Yes, my child. The Eye of the Oracle has spoken.”