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separate room for an egg nest, but that can be constructed later.”
    “An egg nest?” Makaidos repeated. “Dragons bear their young alive.”
    Japheth scratched his head. “I guess I should have known that.”
    “Few humans do. We have not produced many offspring since the day of our creation.”
    “Anyway,” Japheth continued, “the stall is plenty big for you and Thigocia, even if you have a . . . a baby. I don’t know what you call a little dragon.”
    Makaidos halted. “We have the same stall?”
    Japheth stopped and turned around. “Yes, of course. We thought ”
    “My son,” Noah interrupted, walking behind the group. He caught up and draped an arm over Japheth’s shoulder. “Dragons have morals and rituals that are similar to those of humans, and as God’s prophet, I have the authority to join Makaidos and Thigocia in wedlock. We will create their covenant veil immediately.”
    Japheth tilted his head at his father. “Covenant veil?”
    Noah clasped his hands together. “When two dragons join, they must pass through a spiritual veil that tests their hearts’ willingness to commit to their union forever. If either dragon has a shadow of deception or doubt, whether conscious or not, he or she is unable to pass, and the covenant is not complete.”
    “How do you make the veil?” Japheth asked.
    Noah patted his son on the back. “You will find out soon enough.”
    Makaidos pawed the floor. “I feared this was coming.”
    “Feared?” Heat flooded Thigocia’s eyes. “And what is wrong with marrying me?”
    “We have known each other since we were younglings,” Makaidos said. “We have played together, fought together, even bled together. We are best friends, not lovers.”
    Thigocia thumped her tail and scowled. “As it should be! I would prefer to marry my best friend over some sniveling suitor who fancies flying over romantic vistas. Give me a male like you who would rather fight in a bloody battle any day!”
    Makaidos snorted. “Marrying you would be like marrying my little sister!”
    Thigocia lifted her head and stared at Makaidos eye to eye, her voice pitching up. “My father married his sister, and I am no crybaby youngling. When we blasted that Watcher in the Valley of ”
    Noah laughed so hard he could barely speak. “That’s enough!” He wiped a tear from his eye and draped an arm over each dragon’s neck, grinning like a proud father. “There is no other reasonable option. The existence of the dragon race depends on it. You are to be wed immediately.”
    A flicker of light caught Makaidos’s eye. Noah’s son Ham walked by the dragons’ stall with the late-arriving raven perched on his shoulder. A twinge of pain pinched Makaidos’s gut. He winced at the danger signal. Was it real this time?
    Months on the ark had dulled his senses. He had no gems for building a bed to produce the conic shroud of light dragons needed to regain their strength. Such a regeneracy dome was crucial for a dragon’s health, as his father had taught the day they first built a dome together. “Some gems give us strength,” Arramos had said, extending a single red stone in his open claws, “but this one gives us identity. It represents your vision, your passion, and your sacrifice, and one day, it will be a door to freedom. Take this rubellite and wear it always. It is the key to our everlasting union as father and son.”
    Makaidos lowered his head and flashed his eyebeams at his underbelly. Pressed deep into a gap between his scales, a small red gem reflected his beams, his rubellite, a protective shield placed at his most vulnerable point. Even after all his battles, even after all those long days and nights on the ark, the rubellite stayed with him, reminding him of his father’s gift to all his progeny. Thigocia, of course, had one, too. All the dragons of old would find a rubellite for each son or daughter, a dragon symbol for all generations.
    He raised his head again, and a dull pain