I ” Sudden warmth radiated over her thigh. Sliding her hand slowly, she reached into her pocket and withdrew the Ovulum.
Makaidos stepped closer, his eyes bulging. “The Ovulum! Where did you get it?”
He reached for it, but Sapphira pulled it away. “I’ve had it for centuries,” she said. “The Eye of the Oracle said I could keep it.”
Makaidos pushed his hand through his short reddish-brown hair. “The Eye speaks to you?”
“Yes . . .” She pulled the Ovulum closer to her face. “Or he used to. It’s been a while since the last time. But the egg got pretty warm just now, so I thought he was going to speak again, maybe to help us find your dragon family.”
“So,” Roxil said, “what do you do? Ask it a question?”
“Yes, but he doesn’t always answer.” Sapphira raised the egg to her lips and spoke slowly and clearly. “Are there any more dragons here, and if there are, can you help us find them?”
“That’s two questions,” Elam said. “Maybe you should ask one at a time.”
“Don’t worry. He’s smart enough to ” The egg suddenly grew red hot. Sapphira juggled it for a moment, passing it back and forth between her hands as she lowered it to the marble skirt around the fountain. It rocked to the side for a second, then stood upright on its larger end.
Red halos pulsed from the glass, creating vertical rings of light that dimmed and thinned out as they expanded. The frequency of the pulses increased. Ring after ring flew from the Ovulum, so quickly that the gaps between them vanished, leaving a shining red half oval that feathered into pink hues at the edges.
Sapphira reached out and touched the flat oval with her finger, making the surface ripple. She leaned close and gazed through the translucent screen. Elam and Paili stood on the other side, bathed in a wrinkled red shroud, but Makaidos and Roxil appeared as dragons. She jumped to the side and peeked around the edge. Four humans stood agape next to the fountain.
She looked through the screen again. Two humans and two dragons stared back at her.
Elam pointed at her from the other side of the screen. “Sapphira! You’re covered with fire!”
Merlin rode on Clefspeare’s back through the clearing skies and gazed at the terrain below. A stream wound through a forest, leading away from a cliff that housed Makaidos’s cave. A rough path followed the stream through dense forest and undergrowth, but few now ventured its dangerous trek. With Goliath on the warpath, this area attracted only the ignorant or suicidal.
Clefspeare circled lower. “I fear we are too late, Master Merlin. The sense of danger peaked and now wanes with every second. If I had not been such a fool, I would have realized that Arramos was leading me away on purpose.”
“Don’t fret about the past,” Merlin said, patting the dragon’s neck. “Just get us to the cave.” He pointed toward the path. “I see two people carrying a third. Is that the king?”
“Yes,” Clefspeare said. “Devin and Palin are carrying him. Hold on!” He angled into a dive, taking Merlin almost straight down.
As they approached, Devin and Palin laid the king on the ground and withdrew their swords. Making a sharp turn, Clefspeare avoided the blades and slapped them away with his tail. He landed with a rough bounce, and Merlin scrambled down his back.
“Fools!” Merlin shouted. “Couldn’t you see me riding on the dragon?”
Devin picked up his sword and pointed it at Clefspeare. “If you had seen the heroics we had to accomplish to rescue the king, you would have done the same. No dragon can be trusted!”
Merlin squeezed Excalibur’s hilt but kept it in its sheath. “Speak quickly. I am in no mood to listen to your idiotic boasts.”
Devin kicked the other sword toward Palin. “When we sneaked up to the cave, we overheard Goliath and his mate conspiring with Makaidos. They planned to kill the king and blame it on our allies. Inciting war, they said, would ensure more human deaths and distract us from hunting dragons.” He nodded toward his squire who now stood next to him, his sword raised in a similar defensive posture. “Palin and I had to rescue the king from their clutches.”
“Your story smells like a nest of rats,” Merlin said. “The dragons would have sensed your approach.”
“Who can say what they sensed?” Devin waved his arm toward the cave entrance. “The carcasses are in there, so feel free to judge for