Angel swung around and kicked Grackle’s left flank. “Dive!” she ordered. Grackle banked hard and swooped. Angel whistled and pointed at the struggling dragon’s leg. “Ice those vermin!”
As Abraham swatted Albatross’s side, the dragon’s wings faltered. His huge body edged closer and closer to the mass of outstretched arms. Grackle spewed a thin beam of blue light. The beam solidified into a streak of ice that pierced the bands holding the white dragon and spread a frosty coat over the dismembered bodies.
Albatross shot away. Grackle pulled up hard, narrowly avoiding the grasping black arms. After a few seconds, both dragons soared above the wiggling sea of shadows.
Now safe in the sky, Timothy bundled his jacket close and shivered. It was no wonder. With the wind once again assaulting his face, even colder now with the loss of sunshine, anyone would shiver. Yet, the tremors penetrated far more deeply than a mere chill could reach. Could it be fear?
As he gazed at Angel’s back, her long hair beat with the wind, too dark now to see its Nordic highlights, but as they rose above the ridge, Pegasus coated her frame in its creamy glow and painted her locks in gold.
He shivered again. This wasn’t fear. It was thrill—the thrill of danger and rescue, the exhilaration of saving a life and restoring a slender slice of comfort to a bereaved widow. An even deeper passion had awakened, and it stirred his heart. The beautiful woman sitting only a few inches away, bobbing up and down as she guided Grackle close to Albatross, flashed an image in his mind, another light-haired lady whose absence brought the coldest chill yet. But who was she? Who was this fleeting image, one of the many haunting portraits that streamed chaotically through his mind?
Someone was definitely missing. His heart and soul had been torn away. As the two dragons flew side by side in the frosty heavens, the scene looked all too familiar. But why? Now, soaring far above danger and safe from its grasp, the thrill of rescue streamed away, and the sense of loss replaced it as grief flooded his heart.
A sudden drop shook him back to reality. Grackle descended, following Abraham and Albatross as they headed toward the river’s outlet, now barely visible in the moon’s glow. Down in the valley, a bright light filtered through a dense clump of trees, interrupting evening’s dark curtain.
Abraham guided Albatross toward the light, and Angel followed, both dragons circling once before landing near the river’s edge just outside of the light-emitting woods.
“The shadow people should not trouble us here,” Abraham said, untying his prisoner. With his hand around the altered one’s throat, the Prophet seemed to be dragging along an animated cardboard cutout as it thrashed in his grip, clicking and squeaking.
After Angel dismounted, Timothy scrambled down Grackle’s outstretched neck. “What is this place?” he asked.
“The entrance to the light tunnel.” Abraham nodded toward the forest. “I mentioned that I wanted to show you a mystery, and now that we have this murderer to take care of, I can demonstrate its unusual properties.”
“Is this an execution?” Timothy asked.
“In a manner of speaking.” Abraham raised his eyebrows. “Why?”
Timothy spread out his hands. “Don’t you have trials here? Witnesses? Testimony?”
“I am the judge in this world, and this creature has borne witness against himself.” Abraham lifted the shadow person off the ground, letting his feet thrash as he clicked madly. “We are shooting a rabid dog. We are clubbing a viper. There is no prison that can hold him, and once he escaped, he would kill again. Should I allow this murderer to continue to threaten my people?”
Timothy dug his hands into his pockets. “I suppose you’re right. But what about his soul? Does he have an eternity?”
“He sold his soul. They all sold their souls at another time and place when they taught their followers the ways of the hypocrites. They were the blind leading the blind, and they have fallen into this pit. Now, they believe if they possess a companion, they will regain what they forfeited, but they have to drain a life force to snatch it away.”
Albatross whistled a mournful tune, and Grackle joined in. Angel rubbed the purple dragon’s scales and looked at Abraham. “The dragons fear this place, Father. Shall I command them to fly and return later?”
He shook his head. “They will be safe here. The shadows fear the light.”