its victims can receive mercy.” He tucked it back between his belt and trousers. “I never really understood what he meant by that, but it might come in handy wherever we’re going.”
“Wherever we’re going,” Roxil repeated. She brought her snout so close, Sapphira could feel the hot breath on her cheeks. “Do you know where we’re going?” Roxil asked with a challenging tone. “Do you have a plan for finding my father?”
“Cool it, Sis!” Gabriel reached over and shoved Roxil’s head away. “If I know Sapphira, she’s got everything covered.” He turned to Sapphira, his eyebrows raised. “You do have everything covered, don’t you?”
Sapphira tried to keep her gaze fixed on Gabriel, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see Roxil’s red pupils blazing. “Uh, well, I’m not really sure where we’ll come out, but I think we’ll show up wherever we need to be. That’s what happened the last time I went through. I showed up inside the rubellite gateway between Dragons’ Rest and the world of the living, exactly at the right time to help Billy and Bonnie get into Dragons’ Rest.”
“So this is a random jump into space,” Roxil growled. “You don’t know if we will come out freezing on a mountaintop or drowning at the bottom of an ocean, do you?”
Sapphira frowned at Roxil. “Look around you!” She nodded toward the huge building behind them. “Jehovah used you dragons to make that museum drop right into this dimension, giving me scrolls for learning, fuel to keep me warm, rich soil for growing the tree that kept me from starving, and a portal to the outside world that helped me save lives.” She pointed at the ground, her finger now on fire. “I lived in this hole for thousands of years, sometimes alone for centuries, and, yes, I doubted. I cried. I was so desperate I wanted to die. But Jehovah kept me here for a purpose, and I couldn’t see it until exactly the right time. But it was perfect. I was able to help save Billy, Bonnie, and the faithful dragons. Jehovah was even merciful enough to use me to save a faithless dragon.” She extended her blazing finger toward Roxil. “You.”
Roxil backed away a step but said nothing.
“Maybe I can help a faithless dragon see the light.” Sapphira waved her hand at the portal column and shouted. “Expand!”
The column rolled out into a bright screen, and the light particles scattered to reveal two dragons standing close to a teenaged boy and two girls, one a young redhead and the other a taller, older teen. They seemed to be on a grassy field, and the distant mountaintops indicated that they, too, were at a high elevation.
“Mother!” Roxil called out. “The female dragon is my mother!”
“Our mother,” Gabriel corrected. “Do you recognize the male?”
Roxil moved closer to the screen. “It is Arramos. He is Makaidos’s father and my grandfather. He is the first of the dragons and the greatest.” Roxil turned back to Sapphira. “If we go through the portal, is this our destination?”
“I believe so,” Sapphira replied. “At least that’s how it worked last time.”
“Then let us make haste! There is no reason to delay!”
Gabriel patted Roxil on the neck. “So seeing is believing, huh? I guess you”
“Don’t make sport of me with your sarcasm!” Roxil reared back, ribbons of flame spewing from her nostrils. “You might be my brother, as you claim, but to me you look like a human—a two-legged vermin!”
Gabriel stumbled backwards, but Sapphira caught him. At that moment, the younger girl on the screen disappeared into a hole. The portal flashed. A new image appeared, replacing the mountaintop view. A man standing on rocky ground pulled a thin golden cord held by a dark-winged humanoid who crouched just beyond a narrow fissure only a few feet away.
Sapphira walked slowly toward the screen, pointing. “I know him! That’s Mardon, one of my old masters!”
As Mardon strained against the cord, the fissure thinned until it vanished. The portal screen exploded, sending thousands of miniature tornadoes of light spinning across the chamber. Dozens of sparkling eddies covered Roxil and Gabriel, consuming them as they buzzed through their bodies. Every inch of flesh and scales transformed into light, pulsing and twinkling. Within seconds, the eddies vanished, leaving the radiant outlines of a dragon and a winged boy.
Breathless, Sapphira reached for Gabriel, but her arm passed right through his shoulder. “What happened?” She tried to hold his phantasmic hand. “Can you talk?”
His lips