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But she couldn’t control thatelse Her dragon self was like someone else’s memory that surfaced unsummoned and unannounced

And then she saw it, the yellow ribbon fluttering from the branches of a twisted pine "Here! Turn here!"

Sephto keep the car on the paveive me a little notice"

"This is Booker Mountain Road," Madison said, wondering if Barber round "Where could he be keeping them? There’s just my place And the Ropers’" She would not--could not--entertain the idea that they were already dead

"What did he say when you called him?"

"He said to follow the yellow ribbons He’d ht frolittered off the amulets he wore around his neck The air from the opentuainst his pale skin

Tiht she’d die of embarrassment if Seph sahere she ca; herlike young savages on thesister’s notion of civilization Now she wanted to breathe the off a sunny field

Seph felt the intensity of her gaze and glanced at her questioningly, then looked back at the road--which was no longer there, just open space where the bridge used to be Seph stomped on the brake and twisted the wheel The car careened sideways, rolling once before it landed heavily on its wheels in Booker Creek For an instant, Madison was fighting with the side airbag, and then it was gone, and her right ar into the dashboard was gashed deep and dripping blood

She looked over at Seph, who lay unconscious, draped across the steering wheel, a purple swelling rising over his right eye She pressed her fingers against the side of his neck His pulse thudded against her skin, and she knew the key to keeping hi away from the car

She squirood arm, and slid out into the creek, which fortunately was just knee deep in this spot

"That’s the thing about wizards," Warren Barber said fro to be clever All you ever need is one trick"

And all Madison had was one trick, the one Nick had taught her at the church It would have to be enough "You idiot," she said, more to herself than to hiet your hands on the Dragonheart"

The pale brows drew together "I told you to come alone"

"I needed a ride"

"So you asked McCauley"

Madison took a deep breath, fighting for control It wouldn’t do to play her puny hand too soon "Who else do you think would be willing to drive me all the way down here?"

"You think he’d let you hand the Dragonheart over toto split away before we met"

"So where is it?"

"I’ll show you once I’ve seen Grace and JR"

He shaded his eyes as if she were too bright to look at "Show me the stone first"

"I don’t have it on my person"

Barber kind of rocked back on his heels She could tell he wasn’t used to being said no to "You’d better not be lying to htly on his feet, and walked toward the car

"Leave him alone," Madison said sharply "He’s out cold" When Barber leaned into the , she added, "You so much as breathe on hihtened and squinted at her uncertainly "What’s up? You seeet this over with Coo"

Barber’s Jeep was parked at the foot of a gravel road that snaked over the shoulder of the mountain above the Roper place They hairpinned up the slope on a road better suited for the plodding gait of oxen hauling overburden and pig iron Madison knew then where they must be headed

Coalton Furnace was a short-lived enterprise of her great-grandfather’s He’d built the stack of sandstone lined with firebrick and dug iron ore froroves of hardwood trees The furnace produced ingots of iron that were floated down Booker Creek and eventually to the Scioto and the Ohio River

The furnace stack reh the co since slid away, victi of trees Brice Roper knew about the furnace Hecaptives

They had to hike the last few hundred yards over rubble and rock, since the wagon track was too treacherous and unstable for the wall that kept the mountain at bay had collapsed, so the stack was half buried on three sides Saplings sprouted out of the chimney where they’d found a little dirt between the stones Someone had affixed a cast iron door to the stack to keep vandals fro the historical ruins The door was still fir