“Bonnie,” he said, his voice now weak and forlorn, “will you please forgive me?”
She tightened her grip and again pressed her head against his chest. “With all my heart.”
As she pulled back, a brisk warm breeze freshened the air. She felt lighter, as though gravity had decreased by half. Even her clothes had given up their dragging effect. Had the breeze dried them that quickly?
With her hand still clutching her father’s, Bonnie turned to Sapphira. “Look! It’s my daddy!”
Sapphira stood at the edge of the waterfall’s pool, her hair and clothes still dripping. “Bonnie, I can’t look. It’s still dark.”
“Dark?” Glancing at her father, she walked to her and waved a hand in front of her eyes. She neither flinched nor blinked, and her pupils stayed dilated. “Very strange.”
“That’s one of the odd characteristics of this place,” her father said. “The residents here have differing perspectives based on what they’ve learned, or allowed themselves to learn, and their perspectives become reality.”
Bonnie looked downstream. The dragon was nowhere in sight. The statue that had nearly come to life stood motionless near the river’s edge, and other stony figures marked the landscape both near and far. “Like those statues?”
“So it seems. Most were here before I arrived, but one man showed up later. He soon turned to stone.”
“Why didn’t you become a statue?”
“I did become one. I met the dragon, and we had a long discussion about truth and how the space-time continuum works. By the time we finished, I couldn’t move. Then, when the other man arrived, I was able to listen to the conversation between him and the dragon. It wasn’t long before he, too, became a statue, but it seemed as if his arrival somehow allowed me to break free. The dragon shouted for me, but I escaped before I could solidify. My feet began to catch on fire, so I ran through the edge of the river. Ever since, I’ve just stayed out of the dragon’s sight.”
“I don’t blame you.” Bonnie took Sapphira’s hand. “Now if we could figure out how to get Sapphira to see, we might be able to search the pool for the ovulum.”
Sapphira rubbed one of her arms. “The water is oily, Dr. Conner. Do you know why?”
“I hadn’t noticed.” He touched her skin and raised his finger to his nose. “It’s a strong odor. Could it be camphor?”
After Sapphira smelled the back of her hand, her voice sharpened. “I think you’re right!”
“Why the alarm?” Bonnie asked.
“It’s the odor of Morgan’s witchcraft. I smelled her brews so many times, I couldn’t possibly forget. And it’s the same thing I smelled when Goliath called to Roxil, back when Gabriel and I were trying to rescue her from Dragons’ Rest.”
Bonnie’s father crossed his arms over his chest. “It seems that I have much to learn about this girl, don’t I?”
Setting a hand over her mouth, Bonnie grinned. “I’m sorry. You were never introduced.”
After Bonnie explained who Sapphira was, including a rapid-fire sketch of her life as an underborn and her most important adventures, she finished with a loud exhale. “And now we’re looking for the ovulum to see if Enoch can tell us what’s going on.”
“Very interesting.” Bonnie’s father sniffed his finger again. “Sapphira, you might not be aware of this, but I am trained in pharmacy. It’s no wonder Morgan used camphor in her spells. It has many analgesic properties, and, as she and other witches likely believed, it supposedly has spiritual properties. It was used to exorcize an evil spirit and to reduce certain bestial urges.”
Blinking again, Sapphira reached for Bonnie. “I can see better now. It’s still pretty dark, but I can tell it’s you standing there.”
“Revelations of truth are opening your eyes.” Bonnie’s father stroked his chin. “I’m learning as much by your visit as you are.”
Sapphira stepped into the pool. “This feels like a portal. My eyesight is getting really sharp.” As she lifted a hand, a ribbon of fire sprouted from her palm and spun into a fireball. “Look. My flames are back.”
“But you can’t light a transporting fire in the water,” Bonnie said.
“No, but the camphor oil has a source in this world.” Sapphira waded farther out. “With my portal eyesight, maybe I won’t have to go very deep to figure out where it’s coming from. And maybe the ovulum’s down there, too.”
“You’re diving in?” Bonnie asked.
“Sure. I was hoping you’d come with me.” Sapphira blew out the fireball in her palm. “Do your wings keep you from swimming?”
“Actually, they help me, but—”
“Then we should go together, just in case.”
“Just in case what?” Bonnie asked as she stepped into the pool.
“I have no idea, but trouble is better faced in twos.”
“Or threes.” Bonnie’s father waded in with the girls. “I have seen strange shadows in this pool. Maybe it was my imagination. Then again, maybe not.”
With a jump, Sapphira dove in. Bonnie followed. She opened her eyes and found the Oracle gliding effortlessly downward, her body undulating as if she were a white-haired mermaid.
Bonnie angled her wings and pushed against the water. Like two massive flippers, they shot her forward. Holding her nose, she equalized the pressure and looked back. Her father gave her an “Okay” sign. He couldn’t move as quickly, but he could see well enough to follow.
Now about fifteen feet down, she caught up with Sapphira. With bubbles rising from her nose as she hovered, the Oracle pointed into the darker depths. A faint glow pulsed, red in a sea of black.
Bonnie thrust with her wings and shot toward the glow, continuing to equalize pressure as she dove. With her eyes burning and the slimy sensation increasing, the water felt like cooking oil. When she reached bottom, she found the ovulum lodged between two rocky knobs. Tiny bubbles percolated from dozens of pores in the pumicelike floor, popping as they rose toward the surface.
Grabbing the ovulum, Bonnie pulled, but the knobs held it fast. With her lungs aching, she couldn’t afford a delay. She pulled again. Still no movement.
Her father lunged past her and grasped the egg. Flexing his muscles, he jerked it free. Bubbles poured out, thousands, big and small. Sapphira joined them, frantically waving her arms and pointing toward the surface.
A shadow loomed over them. As it drew closer, light from above faded. Red pinpoints appeared in the shadow, bright and angry.
Sapphira waved an arm, shouting a warped cry. Her own bubbles blended with the chaotic mix. As her palm swept through the effervescence, sparks erupted. Then, like lightning arcing across the sky, the sparks leaped from bubble to bubble, igniting the gas within.
With rising bubbles feeding the storm, a web of electrical pulses surrounded the swimmers. Every popping bubble that struck Bonnie’s skin felt like a hornet’s sting. All three batted at the swarm. Above, the shadow continued to hover, as if waiting to pounce should the victims swim out of the hive.
Sapphira waved both arms around her body and swept the water in a circle. Bonnie did the same, touching her father with her foot to get him to join in. Soon they created a vortex. As the web of sparks swirled around them, Bonnie’s chest felt like it was about to explode. Her body demanded oxygen. She had to breathe … now!
The orbiting web of sparks blurred into long, fuzzy streaks. Soon, everything went black. The oily wetness streamed down her arms and legs, like slippery worms sliding across her skin. She sucked in air. Finally! Although saturated with camphor and garlic, it was the sweetest breath she had ever taken.
Blinking, she searched for her father and Sapphira. She dared not whisper. Who could tell what evil lurked in this dark place? A dripping sound reached her ear, multiple streams hitting a solid floor. She craned her neck. Wet clothes? These weren’t her own wet clothes. The drips came from about five feet away.
Taking a step, she reached out and touched someone, a shorter person, soake
d, yet warm. Grabbing a handful of wet material, she pulled the person close and whispered, “Sapphira?”
“Shhh,” came the reply. “Enoch is speaking to me.” As Sapphira turned, the ovulum’s glow appeared.
“I’ll be quiet,” Bonnie said, “as soon as I find my father.”
“I don’t think he came with us.”
“Then he had to face that dark creature we saw?”
“I think so.” Sapphira shushed Bonnie again and lifted the ovulum close, still whispering. “Bonnie’s here, Father Enoch. Please repeat what you told me.”
The prophet’s low voice emanated from the crystalline egg, stirring the red mist within, but static blended with the voice, as if the signal came from a distant radio station. “Sapphira asked why the ovulum glowed,” Enoch said. “I have been calling you from my viewing room at Heaven’s Altar, and my call brought light to the ovulum’s inner mist.”
The radiance darkened, then sparked with life again, the shifts in power coinciding with the surges of static. “Sapphira told me,” Enoch continued, “that your father is present in your current realm.”
“Yes,” Bonnie said. “There’s no doubt about it.” Now that her eyes had adjusted to the ovulum’s light, she looked around the room. A square of stone walls surrounded them, the closest one maybe four feet away, while the others stood at least five times farther. The near wall displayed rows of ornate columns with indistinct murals in between. The red glow dispersed above, revealing no cap on this stony box of a room, but the lack of moving air gave evidence that some kind of roof sealed them in.
“Very interesting,” Enoch said, his voice still distant and scratchy. “Since your father and I never crossed paths at Heaven’s Altar, I wondered what became of him, so a few months ago I consulted the Prism Oracle. Dr. Matthew Conner stood in the Oracle’s spray without hood, crown, or walking stick, indicating that he had, indeed, passed from life on Earth. But it also means that he was neither in Heaven nor in Hades. I searched the Bridgelands and as much of Second Eden as I could, but I found no trace of him.”
“Is there any way you can find out if he’s okay?” Bonnie asked. “I mean, did Sapphira tell you about the creature in the pool?”
“She told me. Since your father is already dead, yours was the greater danger. Only those in Hades need fear the second death. My guess is that he escaped unharmed.”
“Then where are we?” Bonnie asked. “Another afterlife realm of some kind?”
“As one who lives in Heaven’s Altar rather than Heaven itself, I have very little access to those who know more than I do. Occasionally I have the opportunity to speak to a passing angel, but they are usually in a great hurry, and my inquiry about Dr. Conner pales in importance to whatever task the angel has been called to accomplish. Still, a Seraph paused for a moment to tell me about a place your father might be, a realm called the Valley of Souls.”
“The Valley of Souls,” Bonnie repeated in a whisper.
The ovulum’s light faded to a bare hint of a glow, diminishing Enoch’s voice further. “I had never heard of it. I consulted my books but found no such entry, and I had no further opportunity to consult an angel.”
Sapphira breathed another shush. “I hear something.” She pushed the ovulum back into her pouch, covering its light.
A dragging sound filtered in, each slide followed by a thump. The noise grew louder by the second, and a throaty grunt punctuated the thumps.
A tiny flame sprouted from Sapphira’s finger. “We’d better hide,” she said, pulling Bonnie toward the wall. They crouched behind one of the Ionic columns, not quite wide enough to hide them both. Sapphira blew out her flame and whispered “Shhhh.” They crouched and peered around the marble pillar, straining to listen.
Slide. Clump. Oomph. Slide. Clump. Oomph.
In a distant hallway, a flicker of orange light appeared. As it expanded, a shadow expanded with it. Draconic in shape, the shadow stretched upward and arched along the curve of a domed ceiling. Below, the creature casting the shadow took shape, a dragon, the same dragon they had seen by the river, carrying a lantern with one clawed hand and a chain with the other.
After each step, it jerked the chain, and a trailing object thumped against the floor. As he drew closer, his lantern illuminated a large stone table at the center of the room. About four feet in height and at least ten feet long, it looked like a place for a large family to gather.
The dragon set the lantern on the table. The light danced across an array of three-legged wooden mounts. They looked like stands that might hold a display, maybe a book or a framed photo, but they were empty. A taller mount sat in the middle of the table, also empty. Stubby candles surrounded the central mount, their colors indiscernible.
Giving the chain a final jerk, the dragon brought the trailing object into view—a statue, human in shape and size, apparently one of the figures they had seen near the waterfall’s river. The dragon set it upright, carefully balancing it next to the table. With his hands raised, the petrified man seemed to be singing, as if lifting up a psalm of praise.
After looking it over, the dragon breathed a stream of fire and covered the statue in flaming tongues from top to bottom. Like mud streaming from a filthy child, the statue’s black coat washed away, leaving behind a flaming man, still frozen in his worship position.
As if thawing from a deep freeze, the man began to slump, his limbs as fiery as Sapphira’s when she kept the monkey men at bay. The dragon caught him with a foreleg and picked up a small bottle from the table. After taking out a stopper with his teeth, he poured a single drop on top of the man’s head. Dense fog crawled along the man’s scalp and filtered down over his face and shoulders. Soon, the fog enveloped his entire body, veiling him and the dragon’s limbs completely.
For a moment, all was silent. Then, a huff sounded, and the fog blew away. An egg-shaped crystal about the same size as the ovulum sat in the dragon’s cupped hand. He placed it gently on the center mount, picked up a hefty stylus, and scratched something down in a huge open book.
After putting the bottle on the table and picking up the lantern, he turned. He sniffed the air. Blue beams, much wider than the narrow lasers other dragons used, swept slowly across the wall adjacent to where Bonnie and Sapphira hid. They crouched low and squeezed behind the column.
The beams passed the corner and began tracing their wall, pausing as they met each column. When the beams reached the girls’ hiding place, they paused again, then moved past.
The blue lasers flicked off. Frowning, the dragon turned again and shuffled into the hallway. Soon, with the sound of the dragon’s sliding steps dying away, the lantern’s aura shrank.
With the dying light still enough to guide them, Sapphira tiptoed out and crept toward the table. Bonnie followed, peering down the hallway. No sign of the dragon.
Sapphira relit her fingertip and touched it to the wick of one of the candles. As its flame sparked, she snuffed her own flame and slid the candle close to the book.
“What about the ovulum?” Bonnie whispered. “Is Enoch still with us?”
Sapphira opened her pouch and peeked at the egg. It was completely dark. “I think we lost the signal.”
“Then we’re on our own.” Bonnie studied the book. Thousands of oddly shaped symbols covered the parchment, more like tiny cartoon characters than letters or numbers. With no apparent rows or columns, the symbols seemed random, a mosaic of scattered shapes.
“I can’t read this,” Sapphira whispered. “It’s a language I’ve never seen before.”
Bonnie touched one of the characters, a birdlike creature. “Maybe it’s like hieroglyphics. The pictures represent—”
A string of whispered words rose from the page, strange and guttural. Bonnie jerked her hand away and stepped back. “What was that?”
“It’s an old language.” Sapphira narrowed her eyes. “Roughly translated, it said, ‘Dragon essence recognized. Language recognized. Translation in progress.’”
r /> “Dragon essence?” Bonnie pointed at herself. “It detected that in me?”
“That’s my guess. Maybe it’s like a password. Only a dragon is allowed to see what all this stuff means.”
Bonnie squinted at the page. The symbols darkened and lifted from the parchment, growing and morphing as they elevated. The bird transformed into a dragon with purple scales. Two humans rode on its back, a man and a girl strapped into seats, the girl apparently the pilot as she slapped the dragon’s neck and whistled.
Backing away with Sapphira, Bonnie looked at the corridor again. Would the dragon hear the commotion and return? She froze in place, unable to hide. The sight was too mesmerizing, almost hypnotic.
The dragon, about the size of a human hand, flew several inches above the book, which had become a valley scene, a forest with a river running through it. As soon as it landed, the man slid down and helped the girl dismount. After speaking quietly for a moment, they looked up at the sky. Another dragon approached, a white one, also carrying two riders.
The man scooped up the girl, ran into the forest, and stopped at a cave. Trembling, he shouted into the cave’s opening. “Oracle! I have come with the sacrifice. Are you there?”
A brilliant light poured from the cave, and someone answered, but the rush of the river and the beating wings of the approaching white dragon drowned out the voice.
The man leaped away from the blazing light. Caressing the girl’s cheek, he spoke to her, but again, the surrounding noise made the words impossible to hear.
Sapphira tugged Bonnie’s sleeve. “I know that man,” she whispered. “He’s Makaidos, king of the dragons. That’s his human form. I met him in Dragons’ Rest.”
“Enoch told my mother that Makaidos sacrificed himself to save Roxil and Ashley, and now his bones have the power to regenerate.” Bonnie edged closer to the scene. “With all the fire and fog, I couldn’t tell for sure, but that man looks like the statue the dragon brought in here. If he’s Makaidos, his human name is Timothy.”