The image suddenly vanished, but Naamah’s song continued.
Protect the Earth, my chosen one,
By standing fast at Heaven’s shield,
For Mardon’s plan will come to pass
If Elam’s faith should bend and yield.
Turning pale, Naamah exhaled loudly and toppled to the side. Her cheek thumped heavily on the path.
Elam pulled her upright and whispered, “Naamah, are you okay?”
Her head swayed back and forth for a moment, but it finally steadied, and she opened her eyes. A gentle smile graced her lips. “I did it, didn’t I?”
Elam brushed specks of grass and sand from her face. “You were amazing!” Rising to his feet, he pulled Naamah up.
“So do you understand the song?” she asked. “The words came through my mind, so I sang them, but they were a mystery to me.”
Elam gazed at the massive wall. “I understood everything except what I’m supposed to do. I have to stand fast at Heaven’s shield, whatever that means, and that’s supposed to stop Mardon’s plan to bring Heaven down to Earth.”
Dikaios nudged Elam with his nose. “Heaven’s shield is a gate that leads to the altar of God. This is the very place you have been searching for since you arrived.”
“Do you know how to get there?”
The horse turned his head, avoiding Elam’s stare. “You have asked me this question before.”
Elam stepped back into Dikaios’s line of sight. “And you didn’t answer.”
“I had to wait until you passed the tests, and you have done so.”
“I did? What tests?”
“Your tests of character.” Dikaios gave a snorting laugh. “You passed them, and you were not even aware you were being examined.”
Elam extended an arm toward the path. “So can you tell me now? How do I find the shield?”
“I will show you, but you must ride. We have a long journey to the shield, too long considering the task that lies ahead after we find it.”
Naamah pulled together her borrowed cloak and clutched it tightly against her waist. Leaning her head against Elam’s chest, she pleaded, “I beg you to take me with you. I know that my usefulness has already been spent, but I can do manual labor. You have seen me work, Elam. I am not a lazy woman.”
Elam hovered his hand over her circlet, wondering if he should comfort her. With her enchanting voice vibrating his skin, it seemed that his own heart vibrated in response. But was this from sympathy, or was it a warning? Could she still be the enemy who wanted to drink the life within? Or did her tears really signify contriteness in her soul?
Heat and wetness from Naamah’s tears penetrated Elam’s tunic and dampened his skin. He gently caressed her hair and said, “Of course you’re not lazy.” He looked at Dikaios. “Can you take two?”
The horse turned toward the wall. The image of the Earth had reappeared, but this time, the discs lay superimposed on the globe, and twisting webs were shooting toward the altar on the right. He lifted his eyes toward the sky. Dark clouds boiled on the horizon behind them, churning and racing in their direction.
Dikaios bobbed his head. “Very well. The lady may ride behind you.” He lowered himself to the ground and looked up to the sky. “Climb on quickly. The storm to end all storms is fast approaching, and it will take all my speed to stay ahead of it.”
Ashley pulled one of the pennies from her pocket and clutched it tightly in her hand. Stretching her arms and legs as far as she could reach, she spread her body over Roxil and aimed her eyes at her dragon-sister’s chest. “Let’s go for it, Walter!” she called. “She’s huge, so give it all you’ve got!”
Walter charged up Excalibur’s beam and pointed it at the ground. Energy sizzled across the rocky floor and surged into Ashley once again. She lurched but hung on. White light streamed from every part of her body, radiating into the scales, while two narrow beams shot from her eyes and drilled into Roxil’s chest. “More!” Ashley called. “We need more!”
Tightening his grip, Walter threw all his energy into the sword. A new flash of light burst forth and charged into Ashley. She lurched again and cried out with a blood-curdling scream, her limbs locking around her sister.
Walter’s hands shook so hard he could barely hang on. His shout vibrated with his tremors. “Should I stop?”
Ashley’s body quaked violently as she formed words with her screams. “Not … until … her eyes … open!”
Sapphira dropped to her knees in front of Roxil’s face. “I’m watching her eyes! I’ll let you know!”
His arms locking in place, Walter continued blasting Excalibur’s beam into Ashley. Her body bucked so violently, she had to latch onto Roxil’s foreleg and one of her spines to keep from falling off. She bit her lip so hard, blood oozed down to her chin.
“I see her eyes!” Sapphira yelled. “She’s awake!”
Walter shut the beam off and hustled to Ashley, resheathing Excalibur as he ran. She lay motionless on the dragon’s flank, facedown and arms splayed. He laid a hand on her back but withdrew it quickly. “She feels like she’s on fire!”
Roxil lifted her head and swung it back to where Ashley lay. “Why is this human lying on me?” Her tail came forward and began pushing Ashley’s body down her flank.
“No!” Walter shoved Roxil’s tail away. “For your information, that’s your sister Ashley, and she just healed you.” He cradled Ashley and carried her away from the dragon, ignoring the stinging heat radiating from her body. “We have to cool her down somehow!”
Sapphira held out her hand. “The rain’s getting heavier, and it’s ice cold.”
“That should help.” Walter laid her gently on the floor. “But will it be enough?”
As she pulled off Ashley’s shoes, Sapphira nodded at Gabriel. “Take Walter to the top and see if you can get any news. Karen and I will sponge her down.”
Still on his knees at Ashley’s side, Walter caressed her hand. “But I can’t leave her until I know she’s going to be”
“Go!” Sapphira ordered. She and Karen hurriedly stripped off Ashley’s jacket, rocking her body to the side to pull it free. “Roxil will get us out of here when we’re ready.”
Turning his head, Walter shuffled away, kicking through the debris the fiery cyclone hadn’t spun into oblivion.
Gabriel ran up and patted him on the back. “You ready for a ride?”
“Sure.” Walter shrugged his shoulders. “Let’s see what’s going on up there.”
Gabriel unstrapped Walter’s scabbard, sword and all, and handed it to him. Then, wrapping his arms around Walter’s chest from behind, he lifted off.
When Gabriel turned into the breeze, Walter resisted the urge to look back, choosing instead to gaze up into the weeping sky and concentrate on breathing slowly through Gabriel’s tight squeeze. Needlelike ice mixed in with the rain, stinging his cheeks. But that was good—the colder, the better. Cold was now a gift from above, something that could undo the terrible damage he might have done.
Walter gnashed his teeth. That stupid dragon wasn’t worth saving, not if it meant losing Ashley! Sister or no sister, Roxil was a pest. She seemed callous and cold. He mocked the dragon’s words in a high, exaggerated tone. “Why is this human lying on me?”
“Did you say something?” Gabriel asked.
“Yeah, but I’d better not repeat it.”
Gabriel laughed. “Suit yourself. We’re almost there.”
A few seconds later, Walter felt his weight press down on his feet again. Wind gusts from Gabriel’s wings bounced off the ground and breezed into his face as the pressure around his chest loosened.
Tucking the scabbard under one arm, Walter dug out his cell phone and flipped it open. No signal at all. He drooped his head and walked far enough from the pit to avoid a view of the bottom.
“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “She’s thousands of feet down. You wouldn’t be able to tell skin from scales from this distance.”
Walter shoved the cell phone back into his pocket. “Aren’t you worried about your sister?”
“Worried sick.” Gabriel clenched Walter’s shoulder. “But we have to do what we have to do.”
“And what would that be?” Walter turned in a slow circle, eyeing the surrounding trees for any sign of movement. “There’s nothing to do around here.”
Gabriel zipped his lightweight jacket all the way up and pointed at the grass. “These should give us a clue.” He pressed his foot into one of the giants’ tracks. “The ground’s probably wet for miles, so we should be able to follow their trail, at least for a while.”
Walter smirked. “On the ground or in the air?”
“I’m not about to carry you all over the countryside. You take the ground, and I’ll patrol from the air. With all the crazy stuff going on, I don’t think anyone’s going to think twice about a winged teenager flying around.”
“Sounds cool.” Walter slung the scabbard back on and jerked the strap tight. “Tangling with massive, laser-eyed giants who laugh at Excalibur’s beam is a great way to pass the time. That’s my kind of party.”
Gabriel pumped his fist. “Now you’re talking!”
Walter glanced back at the enormous pit but could see only a dozen or so feet of the sheer wall on the opposite side. He turned in the direction the tracks led and pumped his own fist. “Let’s get going.”
With three wing beats, Gabriel lifted off the ground, and, a few seconds later, he was circling from about a hundred feet overhead. “Can you hear me?” he called.
“Yeah! Loud and clear!” Walter marched alongside the huge tracks, glancing up at Gabriel every few seconds. When the path led into the surrounding forest, he grabbed a thick walking stick. Every several yards, he plunged it into the ground and gouged out a fist-sized ball of earth. “Hansel and Gretel have nothing on me,” he mumbled.
The tracks became harder to find, but scattered leaves mixed with mud usually led him in the right direction, and Gabriel frequently swooped closer and pointed out muddy patches farther ahead that gave away the giants’ distinctive prints.
With rain and sleet pelting his hair, Walter pulled his jacket tightly closed and began to trot, pausing every twenty steps to gouge the earth again. He hoped the effort would keep him warm, but after three or four miles, he had to slow to a walk. “You have to keep going, you lazy bum,” he chided himself while puffing heavy plumes of white vapor. “You can’t stop now.”
He glanced up and caught sight of Gabriel getting buffeted by the worsening weather. His verbal self-urging felt good, so he continued. “If Gabriel can keep going, I can, too. He’s old enough to be my grandfather, and he’s doing fine.” He slid down a grassy slope, then resumed a quick trot. “I gotta find the creep that’s causing all this. I owe it to Ashley to stop him. If she dies, I’ll …” He swallowed a lump in his throat and stayed quiet.
Finally, Gabriel landed in a clearing about fifty feet ahead. He stooped low and examined the path.
Walter hustled to join him. “What did you find?” he asked, trying to slow his breathing.
“They split up here.” Gabriel waved his finger across the muddied leaves. “It looks like they’re all going in different directions now.”
“Look for the biggest footprints. That should be Chazaq. If we follow him, maybe he’ll lead us to that Mardon guy.” Walter pointed his walking stick at one of the trails. “There’s the biggest one. You agree?”
Gabriel nodded. “Looks like Bigfoot’s heading toward the highway. I saw a road from the air. It’s about a mile away.”
Walter tapped his walking stick on the print. “If he walked on pavement, we won’t be able to follow him.”
“True, but there’s a huge power plant down the road at a waterfall. I’ll bet I know where he was heading.”
Walter grinned, in spite of his gloomy mood. “To find the biggest outlet and plug himself in?”
“That’s my guess.”
Walter pointed his stick again. “Then let’s go.”
“I’ll stay on the ground for a while,” Gabriel said. “I think our path is pretty much set.”
Walter leaned into the swirling breeze and followed the prints, Gabriel at his side. Now that he was soaked, the bitter wind chilled him to the bone, so he started jogging again, still pausing to scar the ground with his stick.
Gabriel nodded at the ground. “I’ve been wondering why you’re doing that.”
“A trick I learned from Ashley. Always leave a trail.”
“Good thinking. It sounds like you and she make a great team.”
As he jogged, Walter glanced at Gabriel. His thin jacket was plastered to his chest, and his lips had turned blue. “You must be freezing.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel replied through chattering teeth. “I’m pretty cold.”
“Now would be a good time for a Sahara treatment. Know what that is?”
“Sure do. I saw you get one after Ashley healed you during the flood.”
Walter squinted at him. “You were there?”
“Yep. I followed Bonnie around for years. I was sort of like her guardian angel, but I couldn’t do much to help her. I guess I was more like a ghost than an angel.”
Walter shivered harder than ever. “That creeps me out. I wonder if any ghosts are following me around.”
“You never know.” Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “I’ve seen stuff so weird, you’d never believe it.”
Walter grinned. “Try me.” He quickly shook his head. “Never mind. It’s not smart to trade creep-out stories with a guy who has dragon wings.”
Gabriel and Walter laughed together as they jogged on and on. After a few minutes, they arrived at the highway. As expected, the tracks disappeared, so they followed the road toward the power plant. Not a single car or truck came in sight as they hustled, making the going easier, but the bitter cold kept biting through their wet layers. Walter continued plunging the stick into the ground just beyond the edge of the pavement.
A half hour later, the entrance road to the plant came into sight. The remains of a fence gate, bent and torn, leaned against a power company pickup truck. Slowing his pace as he approached the guard’s gatehouse, Walter dropped the stick. The upper half of a man’s body protruded through the station’s broken window, hanging limply with his arms dangling near the ground.
Gabriel ran to him and felt his neck for a pulse. After a few seconds, he looked up at Walter, pain in his eyes. “He’s dead. Probably strangled. His throat looks like it’s been flattened.”
Walter lifted the guard’s limp hand and rubbed his thumb across his wedding ring. “I wonder if he had any kids,” he said sadly. He put his shoulder under the lanky man’s body and gently pushed him back inside the tiny room, careful to avoid the blood and jagged glass. As he seated the corpse on a stool and leaned him against the back wall, he spotted a coat and an umbrella within reach. Grabbing both, he pulled back out and showed them to Gabriel. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”