by Bryan Davis
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 tricklin
g 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.”