But now, seeing them with my own eyes, and witnessing the despair that dragged at my friends, I didn’t know how anyone would choose differently. I would let go of my human self. I would become a dragon. And I would do everything in my power to make the Fallen Gods stay.

Even if I was successful, though, the damage was already done. Hundreds of thousands of people were gone.

Homes. Societies. Histories.

Nothing would ever be the same, no matter how we tried.

It wasn’t long before we approached the harbor, and my seven large friends flew over the ship-choked port to rest on the red cliffs. A dull noise rose up from the city, like wind.

“What’s that?” Hristo asked.

“Cheering.” Aaru moved to stand beside me. “They’re cheering for the dragons.”

“Because they think the dragons are here to protect them?” Ilina shook her head and sighed.

“I think people have been hearing that Paorah was gathering up dragons to appease the goddess of destruction. They probably think this is his doing.” I slipped my hand into Aaru’s as the Star-Touched pushed toward the port, leaving the other ten ships behind. There wasn’t enough room for all of them to come in at once, but I suspected few were unhappy with the situation. Why disembark a ship when there was no guarantee of being able to get back on it when the island started to move?

The Star-Touched maneuvered toward a berth being cleared, and by the time we eased our way in and the crew began securing the ship, night was full upon us.

“Do you know where the birthplace is?” Hristo scanned the crowded port, searching for danger, probably. “Do you know how to get there? Anahera is a big island.”

I closed my eyes, thinking back to my dreams of the first dragon’s creation, the way she’d burst from the ground in an explosion of light and molten rock, her scales glittering with stars. So much had changed in the two thousand years between my birth and hers, but Anahera’s nature had not. “Ruins.”

Ilina glanced at the cliffs where seven dragons waited, watching us. “Like the ruins up there? The ones we destroyed three decans ago?”

“Like those.”

“That seems like something you should have thought of before you destroyed them,” Zara muttered. “Will I need these ancient and powerful ruins again? Maybe? Better not rip them apart.”

“Yes. These would have been easiest, but any ruins will do.” I forced a smile. “There are ruins all across Anahera, more than on any other island. They are temples to her. We’ll find the closest one.”

Ilina looked west, where both moons were slipping behind the great shadow of Bopha. They were razor crescents now, just slices of gold and silver, and tomorrow both moons would be new. Tomorrow, they’d pass before the sun, one after the other, and the whole world would go dark.

The Great Abandonment would be complete.

And the only survivors would be those who’d managed to get on one of these ships.