brief moment. Releasing Karen, she got up and walked past a pair of matching sleep mats, stopping at a clear spot on the floor. “The portal used to be right here,” she said, spreading out her arms, “so gather around, and I’ll try to get everyone into the fire.”
Ashley followed her to the open area. “Into the fire?”
“It’s the only way.” Sapphira brushed a hand across the air. The lanterns surrounding the museum winked out one by one until only two remained lit. “Trust me. You won’t feel anything except a tingly sensation.”
Her eyes adjusting to the dimmer room, Ashley edged closer, a new anxiety weakening her legs. “How about Gabriel and Roxil? Will they come with us?”
Sapphira laid her arm around an invisible bystander. “Gabriel’s already right next to me, and Roxil’s behind him, so I think they’ll come along. If not, I’ll try to come back and get whoever is left.”
Bright plumes of fire erupted from Sapphira’s palms. As she waved her arms in a wide circle over her head, a cyclone of flames swirled above, growing in diameter. Walter, Ashley, and Karen huddled underneath, and a fiery wall lowered around them, a cylindrical curtain of dancing orange tendrils.
In spite of the warmth, Ashley shivered. The yellow tongues licked the air as they created a stream of hot, dry wind that slurped the moisture from her eyes. She shut them tightly. A tingle crawled along her skin, like a swarm of centipedes creeping up her back. Then, with a loud whoosh, the hot air swept upward, and damp coolness returned.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” she said, opening her eyes. “In fact, it was kind of”
Ashley gulped. The museum was still there! The old books, dirty scrolls, and sleeping mats were all still there! She swung her head from side to side. Walter, Karen, and Sapphira were gone! Now shivering harder, she hugged herself, rubbing her upper arms. “Walter?” she called, her voice quaking. “Karen?”
No answer.
She took a timid step backwards, but her elbow struck something solid. She wheeled around and came face-to-face with a dragon!
“Aaaugh!” She fell backwards and landed on her seat. “Who are you?” she shouted, pedaling her feet to scoot away.
The dragon, sitting on its haunches, cast twin eyebeams on the floor between them. “I am your sister. At least that is what I am told.”
Ashley eyed the red dots on the floor and followed the beams to the scaly beast. “Roxil?”
“Yes,” the dragon replied, taking a step toward her, “and since you can see me now, we obviously have a problem.”
“Problem?” Ashley slid farther back. “You’d better believe there’s a problem. Sapphira and the others are gone, and we’re trapped here.”
“That is exactly my point.” Roxil swept her tail across the empty space between her and Ashley. “Sapphira is gone and has left us in Hell, so to speak. When I first came out of Dragons’ Rest, Gabriel and I were physically solid. Then, we became merely energy for a short time until the giants and Sapphira departed. Now I am physical again.”
The dragon’s nonthreatening, matter-of-fact tone set Ashley at ease, at least about being trapped with a dragon. The talk about Hell, on the other hand, racked her nerves. She rose slowly to her feet and brushed dirt from her hands. “What do you make of it?”
“This is merely a guess, but it fits all the circumstances. For a short time, this place was transported to the world of the living, so you were able to descend into it, and the giants were able to climb out. During that period, Gabriel and I lost our physical forms. Just now, Sapphira created a new portal that took her and your friends out but sent us back to the land of the dead. Since I actually died in the living world, it makes sense that I would be physical here and something of a ghost there.”
Ashley pointed at herself. “What about me? Does that mean that I’m”
“Dead?” Roxil opened her claws and looked at their sharp points. “Not necessarily. Other living humans have been abandoned here before.”
Ashley tried to hide her tight-throated swallow. “Abandoned?”
“Desolate. Deserted. Forsaken. Choose your own synonym.”
“But why? What did I ever do to Sapphira?”
“Who can tell? She is an odd one to say the least. She destroyed Dragons’ Rest, a perfectly reasonable place for dragons to spend eternity.” Roxil’s eyes glowed with a brighter red. “Long ago, a young man named Elam tagged along with her to Dragons’ Rest. On her