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"Maybe we’re not the last" Jack looked unco breed "Maybe there are others we don’t know about"

"If there are," Ellen said, strapping on the scabbard and cinching it around her hips, "they can find their oords"

"Wait till you see the rest of this," Jason said, lifting his backpack onto the front pew and unzipping it He dumped the contents onto the weathered wood seat and stood back, allowing the others to crowd in Only Ellen stood aside, caressing Waymaker’s hilt, a distant expression on her face

Madison picked through the jewelry She’d always loved shiny things There were gold and silver medieval pieces, set with precious and semiprecious stones: brooches and necklaces and bracelets and hair adornathered her old net and set a jewel-encrusted tiara on her head, stuck three rings on each hand, and admired the result "I alanted to be a queen," she said wistfully

Queens never had to worry about findingto the backpack Jason had set it aside in one of the pews Soht in the darkness, like a painting she’d not yet splashed onto the canvas

Seph had collected a pile of objects in front of him Some were dull black rocks, totally uniraved with ns Some were h theht so he could read the inscriptions on theical words under his breath

Jack tried on a pair of gauntlets in a lightweight silverhis arms to check out the effect

"And these all came from the same cave, I assume?" Snowbeard said

Jason nodded "This wasn’t even half of it, but I tried to take the best, as far as I could choose Hastings toldall this stuff back here and hide it, and not to let anyone know it’s here That’s why I’m back" He half-mumbled the last part, like he didn’t want to say it out loud

Madison sat down in the pew next to the backpack It was illuic, and she realized that the power that had see fro, she’d lifted it onto her lap, cradling it in her arms

"Hey!" Jason jerked the backpack out of her hands "Careful"

Madison was rabby person "I--I’’s still in there," she said "It’s like … I don’t know…important!"

Suddenly, it was like everybody in the church had stopped talking and focused on the else, Jason?" Nick asked into the silence

Jason’s face hardened, and his eyes narrowed, like he ht refuse to answer He looked froroped in the front pocket of his backpack He brought out a velvet bag embroidered over with symbols in a darker thread "It’s so "I … ah … picked it out for hed the parcel in his two hands, as if he could discern its essence by touch alone "This is very old," he said thoughtfully "And yet, soe It has a potential for power that is truly a I’ve never encountered before"

He opened the bag and drew out a large, slightly ovoid stone They all gathered around it, like planets around a new sun

"Mere de Dieu," Seph ot excited "What is it?"

"I think it’s called the Dragonheart," Jason replied, his eyes on the stone" Then he shut his mouth, as if he’d said too onheart? Really? What makes you think so?"

"There was a book in the cave I read soonheart"

"Do you have the book?" Nick asked, his black eyes glittering with interest

Jason shook his head "No, I--ah--lost it on the way out"

"What else did it say about the stone?" Nick’s voice had sharpened considerably

"I don’t re control of thethe I was kind of in a hurry"

"That’s a pity" Nick stroked the surface of the stone with a wrinkled finger "Even here in church, you can feel it" The glow fro the lines of age so that he looked like the oldest of prophets "Madison is right This is important"

"I don’t know about iht be confiscated "But I thought it looked cool" He pulled out a dangerous-looking es and sinuous monsters "This came with it"

Madison was fascinated by the stone in Nick’s hands Broad flashes of blue and green surfaced as he turned it, like the scales of so in an exotic tropical sea