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Naturally, Carlene didn’t co "You don’t even have a crush on him?"

Madison tore the paper towel that stood in for a napkin into careful strips "No, I don’t What ure out why you don’t like Brice"

"Mama, there are a hundred reasons why I don’t like Brice, beginning with the fact that he’s a self-centered, arrogant…jerk"

"But good-looking And rich" Carlene waved away self-centered and arrogant like his other stellar qualities canceled them out

"Maybe you should marry him, then"

Carlene considered this, then shook her head "He likes you"

"He likes Booker Mountain If you owned it, he’d like you" Careful, Madison, she thought Just cal it to him"

"Where would you live, then?"

Carlene looked around the kitchen, with its battered linoleulazed over with years of propane residue "Anywhere Anywhere but here" She paused "Think what it would mean to Grace and John Robert if they could ood schools, where they’d have friends close by to play with"

She stubbed out her cigarette "They’re talking serious e, for a new house, for…for everything We’d be millionaires We could move wherever anted and make a fresh start, where people don’t have…attitudes"

Booker Mountain is ed to Grace and John Robert, too But it wouldn’t belong to any of them if they sold it away If Min hadn’t been so stubborn, it would be gone already

Madison i the top off her

"Ma to do to the mountain," Madison said "Brice told you about it How could you ever let that happen?"

"Now, baby," Carlene coaxed "Don’t exaggerate They’ll fix it up, after Besides, there’s other as There’s ht of the little graveyard upslope in the hollow, the crazily tilted headstones like crooked teeth where the frost had pushed theround There was the cave by the waterfall where she’d found Native Alyphs and never told anyone because she was afraid somebody would sneak in and wreck it, the way people always did The old iron furnace by the creek, built by her great-grandfather, one of his crazy, e, between Brice Roper and Carlene and Children’s Services and Seph and the onrushing wizard war and the Dragonheart pulling at her asleep and awake

"Do we have to talk about this now?" she asked wearily

"Madison" Carlene looked her in the eyes "Do you want to wait until Grace and John Robert are growed up? We’re not the kind of people who can afford to be ros We have to be practical"

Practical Co from Carlene "Did Mr Roper ask you to talk to me?" Madison dearette case "I told him I would It don’thim and Brice"

"Well, If I have to decide now, the answer is no"

"Don’t decide now, then" Carlene stood and picked up her pocketbook, fished inside and pulled out a twenty "I have to go to work Here Go on and take the kids to the ht And don’t be stubborn Sometimes you have to think of so the walls, painting the great stone hall in reds and yellows Prisoners processed up the aisle to the altar at the front, chains clanking, clad in rough-spun hooded robes that bore the insignia of their Houses The Red Rose The White Rose The Silver Bear The Dragon In an endless line

The executioner stood beside the altar, holding a great staff with the Dragonheartfro the sentences Many of the nas Linda Downey Claude D’Orsay Jessabranch Jackson Swift Jason Haley Joseph McCauley The charge: Anarchy Rebellion Murder Each of the condemned knelt at the altar and mutely laid his head upon the stone The executioner raised the great staff, pointed it at the prisoner Fla the condemned in an instant The stench of burned flesh filled the hall

The executioner’s hood fell back, revealing her own face

"Maddie, wake up! Maddie, you’re drea it out of its socket

Maddie opened her eyes and Grace’s worried face ca of freckles, straight brown hair pulled back in a ponytail "You’re scaringlike that"