Page 216 of The Two-Faced God
"You are wrong about that," Saphir said, reading my thoughts again.
My eyes widened. "We have the technology to leave the planet, and it's kept a secret from the population?"
Old Ednis was a conspiracy theorist, and he'd talked about all the things our government and military were hiding from us. I'dnever taken him seriously, but now I regretted not listening to what he'd had to say.
The shaman chuckled. "We don't have the technology, but we have the magic to create portals or gateways to other worlds or rather, we used to have it before it was lost. And before you call me crazy again, I present Moki as evidence. I brought him here through such a portal."
I gaped, not sure how to respond to his crazy story that, for some reason, was making sense to me.
"Dragons could once open portals to other worlds," Saphir continued. "They hunted all over the galaxy and returned to their home world to mate and lay eggs. But since all the dragons of today were born orphaned, there was no one to teach them how to do that. I've been waiting for hundreds of years for you and your four friends to arrive, so you can help me open them once more. Many dragon eggs and shamans are hiding on other worlds, lost to us because we can't reopen the portals that were closed to protect them from the Shedun."
I sank back in my chair, trying to absorb his revelation. "What do you mean, you were waiting for me and my friends? How did you know that we were coming?"
"You are the five foretold by Elu in a prophecy written by his own hand—five out of the seven."
I tilted my head. "Who are the other two?"
"I believe your special connection to Commander Ravel and his dragon indicates that he is one of them, probably the tracker, and the other is still destined to arrive."
I felt like Saphir was dropping the missing pieces of a puzzle into place. With each new piece, the picture was becoming clearer, but still too obscure to sort out.
"What is the prophecy about?"
"Five would come as one, bound by threads of destiny," Saphir said, his voice taking on a rhythmic cadence as if recitingsacred text, "to join the one who was here first and wait for the seventh who would come in last. The one who tracks, the one who connects, the one who senses, the one who detects, the one with an impenetrable mind, the one who moves faster than thought, and the one whose destiny is shrouded from my sight." He smoothed a hand over his beard. "I wonder how we will find the seventh member if we don't know what he or she can do."
I was the one who connected, Morek was the one who moved faster than thought, and Shovia was probably the one with an impenetrable mind. But who was the one who sensed and the one who detected? One had to be Alar and the other Codric, but who was who?
I swallowed. "What are the seven supposed to do?"
Saphir smiled. "Save the world, of course. What else?"
