Bryan Davis - Eye of the Oracle

“To kill him. He wants to kill my parents, so I was trying to stop him.”

“I see.” Merlin stroked his chin. “How could you kill him in your disembodied state?”

Gabriel lifted his glowing hand and splayed his fingers. “I’ve been experimenting with channeling electricity. I’ve only done it with batteries, and I shocked a couple of cats, but I think I can hook up to an outlet and deliver a lethal jolt.”

“Assuming you were able, what do you think the jolt would have done to you?”

“I really don’t care.” Gabriel rolled his fingers into a fist. “Even if it scattered my atoms to kingdom come, it would be worth it if I could protect my parents from that murderer.”

Merlin nodded. “A reasonable motivation, to be sure, but do you think killing an unarmed man in his sleep is a noble act?”

As Gabriel tightened his fist, it flashed with a crimson hue. “I wasn’t thinking about nobility. I was just thinking about getting rid of a fifteen-hundred-year-old sewer rat.”

“I understand. In cases like this, strong emotions always seem to trump chivalry, so I won’t argue the point.” Merlin raised a sparkling finger. “Instead, I will tell you about your assignment.”

“Assignment?” Gabriel stretched out his arms and wings. “In this place?”

“Oh, no. You will soon be leaving, but I will explain that in a moment.” Merlin melded his hand with the tip of one of Gabriel’s wings. “Because of your status as a disembodied humanoid dragon, for the lack of a better term, you have been chosen to be the guardian of others like you.”

“Are there other disembodied humanoid dragons?”

“I mean other offspring of former dragons. A new one has recently come into the world. Patrick and Paili have had a daughter.”

“How am I supposed to be a guardian?” Gabriel clasped his radiant hands together. “I can’t even use a slingshot.”

“You have already figured out how to manipulate electrical fields. Perhaps you will learn other ways to alter your environment. The key is to figure out how to warn someone of approaching danger.”

“Maybe, but it seems like everything’s against me. My body passes right through the things I’d like to touch, like people or tools or weapons, but I can’t seem to penetrate most walls or doors. That would come in handy.”

“Ah, yes,” Merlin said, nodding. “God’s ways are mysterious, indeed. He seems to erect just enough boundaries to force us to seek the paths he wishes us to find. Experience, however, has taught me that every unexpected wall we slam into has a purpose, though we often cannot fathom it. Even we prophets find the limitations severely taxing at times.”

“But if you’re a prophet, and you’re still stuck in this place, how do you expect me to get out?”

Merlin pointed at a darker area of the chamber. “This gem has an exit channel. If I were to go through it, my atoms might diffuse, but your energy frame was welded together by the Great Key. You see, as the son of Makaidos, you became, in one sense, Patrick’s messiah. Not his human messiah, of course, but you were the sacrificial lamb who purged Patrick’s dragon nature. Because of that, you were able to live again, not in your old body, but in a nearly indestructible new body.”

Gabriel basked in the sparkle of the prophet’s dazzling eyes. They seemed to radiate sincerity and truth. “It all sounds pretty crazy, but I believe you.”

“As well you should.” Merlin laid a hand on his chest. “It is not often you find yourself inside a gemstone talking to a disembodied prophet.”

Gabriel shook his head and laughed. “I can’t argue with that.”

“Now,” Merlin continued, “although you have been a fine conversationalist, I must see you to the gem’s back door and ask you to be on your way. When you leave through the exit channel, you will have to fight against the candlestone’s pull or you will just be reabsorbed.”

“Yeah. I felt like a fly on a frog’s tongue when I came in here, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Merlin raised a finger and stepped closer. “One final exhortation, and I am telling you this as a prophet of God. Since you are a body of light, your greatest enemy is darkness. If darkness envelops you, it will gnaw away at your sanity and threaten your very essence. You will know it is upon you when your body dims or shrinks. If you seek the light, you will have the power to overcome the darkness.”

As the prophet’s eyes pulsed with brilliant light, Gabriel let the words sink in. Finally, he nodded. “I will remember your warning.”

Merlin spread out his arm toward the darkest region of the bleak chamber. “Come now; you must be on your way.”

October 31, 1964

Gabriel swooped low over the Glastonbury Tor and scanned its grassy slopes. Only a few tourists lined the path that ascended the famous hill, making it easy for him to check every face closely. Any one of these sightseers might really be a predator stalking Shiloh, Gabriel’s young ward, as she made ready for a celebratory picnic in a nearby copse.

He guided his energy field in front of a tall, slender woman plodding up the hill and hovered a foot ahead of her, floating backwards at her pace. He gazed into her eyes, searching for a sign of an indwelling evil witch. With all of Morgan’s disguises, she could be any female, maybe even a male the grade school boy with the pea green knickers who trudged behind this woman, perhaps, or the hulking brute holding the boy’s hand.

Gabriel groaned. It seemed hopeless. Morgan could even fly in as a raven, and he couldn’t possibly search for a hint of unusual intelligence in every black bird fluttering in the trees. Even if he could identify the dark sorceress lurking nearby, the only electrical device he could use out in the open was the flashlight Shiloh had packed in her basket. Would lighting it up be enough to warn her in time?

He floated down to a small cluster of trees near the base of the hill. Carrying a folded blanket, his young protectorate searched for a suitable place to sit with her parents. When she found a place under the shade of a lush oak tree, he eased close and checked the basket dangling from a handle on her arm. The flashlight lay inside nestled against an apple and a wrapped sandwich.

As she spread out the satin-trimmed blanket, Shiloh’s gold-streaked hair shone in the setting sun, and her sparkling blue eyes flashed. She seemed like an angel, so innocent and pure. Even her gentle laugh as she sat next to her parents revealed a forgivable naivete. To her, they were Robert and Sarah Nathanson, not Patrick and Paili. Though she knew about Patrick’s former life as a dragon, she had no idea that her mother was really an underborn almost as old as the civilized world. Yet, because of the stealthy relocating Shiloh had suffered through in her young life, including a recent, month-long visit to the U.S., she knew they were potential prey for a stalker of some kind.

Gabriel lifted into the air and hovered over their heads, watching the boundaries of their tree-filled haven. The magnificent tor towered above them like a protective sentry and cast a shadow that crept closer to the blanket as the minutes ticked by.

Patrick lifted a camera and pointed it at Shiloh. “Smile, birthday girl!”

Shiloh spread out the edges of her white party dress and flashed a cheesy smile. After the shutter clicked, Patrick laid the camera in Shiloh’s basket and all three settled on the blanket in a tight circle.

Paili set a double fudge, two-layer cake in the center. Fifteen candles lined the frosted perimeter. “I know you didn’t ask for a cake,” she said as she struck a match, “but what’s a birthday without cake and candles?” She cupped her hand around the match to keep the cool breeze from snuffing out her efforts.