every grain in every plank. The dragons looked up, trembling. A ball of scarlet fire hovered just below the clouds, pulsing, throbbing like a luminescent heart. It seemed that an aging sun was sinking to the earth, blushing red and vibrating in the throes of death.
Noah ran onto the deck. “I was on the lower level. What ” He looked up at the red orb. All eyes dragon, demon, and human locked on the blazing sphere, every creature frozen in place and gaping in wonder. Fingers of red flame sprouted from the ball’s surface. The long tendrils snaked toward the ground, and as each finger pierced the earth, a geyser of muddy water sprang from the entry point. Fountain after fountain gushed into the sky. A peal of thunder, the loudest yet, blasted across the heavens. Torrents of rain followed, sheets of cold, stinging drops that forced Thigocia to finally blink.
“Master Noah,” she yelled, sliding the sword to him with her tail. “The Ovulum said to take the sword and wave it.”
Noah pulled the blade from its sheath and lifted it over his head. The sword flashed with light, sending a bright beam into the sky, and as he waved it back and forth, the light created a wall. He swirled the sword as if stirring a spoon, transforming the wall of light into a dome that completely covered the ark. Inside the dome, an eerie tapping sounded all around. The rain beat against the shield and streamed across the boundary, painting thousands of bright rivulets on their canopy of light.
Morgan screamed, “Attack! Now!” The Watchers blasted streams of darkness at the ark, but the black jets merely splattered against Noah’s dome of light.
Rushing water toppled the demons and every creature on the land, washing them toward the trench in a rampaging river. The torrent ended in a whirlpool that flushed the bodies downward into a dark, spinning hole. Morgan, flailing helplessly in neck-high water, tried to grab branches as she swept past the sycamores. She snatched a skinny limb and hung on, but her fingers began slipping as the raging water furiously beat against her body. Samyaza, having regained consciousness, swam against the current, but in his weakened state, he was no match for the ferocious river.
Thigocia draped Makaidos with her wing and shouted over the din. “Master Noah! I beg you to go inside! We no longer need the shield!”
Noah lowered the sword, and the blade’s light blinked off. With rain once again beating on his head, he hurried to Adam’s Door and disappeared.
Makaidos gaped at the rising water and bowed his head. As the flood hoisted the ark from the ground, it lurched to one side. The two dragons staggered toward the door, careful to avoid the sheer drop over a railing to their left. They collapsed their wings and ducked low. Thigocia entered first and found Japheth holding a lantern and standing with his feet spread apart, bracing against the rocking boat. He waved the lantern toward an interior door. “Quick! Inside! This is just the window vestibule.”
Thigocia scooted toward the second door and glanced back to see Makaidos squeezing through as she made room. Rain poured in through another hole cut into the exterior wall, above and well to the right of the door, apparently an observation window with shutters on both sides.
“Hurry!” Japheth called, clutching his ribs with one arm. He picked up a bucket of thick black liquid. “I still have to seal the openings.”
Thigocia crawled through the interior door and into a cavernous chamber. A solitary light shone from the opposite side, barely illuminating the wide-planked floors and dozens of dark lanterns swinging from thick ceiling beams. She could see little else, only a human shadow drawing closer. It staggered with the rocking boat for a moment, then walked more steadily as the ride smoothed out.
Makaidos followed Thigocia, pushing far enough into the room to raise his head and unfurl his wings slightly.
A voice accompanied the shadow. “That was quite an adventure!” The dark hand laid a flaming piece of wood on a lantern wick. A brightening fire cast a glow across Noah’s face as he mopped his brow with a cloth. A woman stood at his side, wrinkled and white-haired and wearing a tired but satisfied smile.
Thigocia bowed low. “Mistress Emzara!” Makaidos bowed with her, though not as low.
Noah gestured for them to rise. “Welcome, my friends.” He stroked Thigocia’s neck three times. “Peace to you, dragoness. Your willingness to listen