him on the back. “It seems that the Maker has given us unique human characteristics, including unique voices, body shapes, and personalities.”
“Unique?” Roxil grimaced. “That was not the word I had in mind.”
“Roxil, the Maker has given us this destiny, so we would be wise to make the best of it. We should forget the past, rebuild this village, and live as humans until the Maker sees fit to send us elsewhere.”
The other former dragons nodded their agreement, but Roxil’s face hardened as she stared at the ground. “Have you already forgotten my mother?” she asked. “Have you forsaken Thigocia?”
Makaidos’s face turned pale.
Roxil crossed her arms over her chest. “So you have already forgotten her!”
Makaidos nodded slowly. “Why would that be? How could I forget the love of my life?”
“Is it because you reject the Maker’s plan?” Roxil asked. “He made you a dragon, and now you want to forget everything about your dragon life, so he stripped away your greatest love.”
“I reject nothing!” Makaidos spread out his fingers and showed them to Roxil. “Did the Maker not also choose this form for me? I accept any form my creator shapes around my mind!” With the Ovulum resting in his palm, he gazed at it and walked back toward the tower portal. “I have to think.”
When Makaidos passed out of earshot, Roxil glared at Elam and the underborns, her eyes flashing. As she crossed her arms again, a barely perceptible smile grew on her lips. Her voice altered to a slow, Morgan-like cadence. “If this is a place for dragons to rest, then perhaps the humans ought to find another home.”
Sapphira called up the innocent voice she often used to answer Morgan. “Well, I’m not sure exactly how human we are,” she said. “We’re called underborns. At least most of us are.”
Roxil held up her ringed finger. “There will be no mixing between dragons and humankind, underborn or otherwise. As long as we have to dwell here in these human disguises, we will keep ourselves pure.”
Elam strode up to Roxil and looked her in the eye. “Don’t worry, dragon lady. I’ll leave on the fastest camel out of here, but if you get sick of this place in a thousand years or so, don’t be surprised if no one, human or underborn, comes to rescue you.”
Roxil kicked at the ground, raising a cloud of dust. “Even if this place were to crumble beneath my feet, I would never take aid from a human! Never!”
“Suit yourself.” Elam turned and waved for Sapphira to follow. “We’re leaving.”
Without looking back, Elam marched up the rise. Sapphira took Paili’s hand, then Acacia’s, and hurried to follow. The other girls huddled into a group behind them and began walking up the slope toward the portal.
When Elam reached the top of the rise, Makaidos met him with a raised hand. “Please! I beg you to wait!”
Elam halted. Sapphira tightened her grip on Acacia’s hand and waited near the crest. Makaidos held the Ovulum in his palm and waved at Roxil. “Come. All of you. I want to tell you something.”
Roxil lowered her arms to her sides, her face softened by a hint of fear. She and the other dragons ascended the rise and gathered at the top.
“I must give clear instructions before the humans leave,” Makaidos said. “When they return, I will be gone.”
“Where will you go?” Sapphira asked.
“I wish I knew.” He handed the Ovulum back to Sapphira. “You see, as soon as I walked into the old museum area, the Eye of the Oracle spoke to me. He told me that I must complete my work here and God would grant me the greatest desire of my heart.”
Sapphira took Makaidos’s hand. “What is the desire of your heart?” she asked, caressing the pulsing gem on his ring.
Makaidos stroked her hair. “I dare not presume. I would not jeopardize the possibilities for all the world.”
She gazed into his soft brown eyes. “Then can you tell me what you’re supposed to do?”
“Yes.” He waved his arm across the city scene. “We are to raze everything that would remind us of Shinar’s evil past and use the materials to build a new, peaceful village. We are to forget what lies behind and live and act as humans until God sends someone to deliver us to a better place.”
Sapphira twisted the ring on Makaidos’s finger. For some reason, touching the gem soothed her mind, the opposite feeling the portals evoked. “You’re supposed to forget everything?” she asked.