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I saw goosebuht the look she sent ined just how it ht be, to arrive suddenly out of one’s own tiave her a small smile, and put my hand on Jamie’s arm Absentently

"Aye He nearly despaired, as he says, when he realized that it had all gone wrong He thought of going back--but he didna have a gemstone anymore, and this Raymond had said ye must have one, for protection"

"He did find one eventually, though," I said Getting up, I reached to the top shelf and brought down the big raw opal, its inner fire flickering through the carved spiral on its surface

"That is--I’ there can’t have been multiple Indians named Otter-Tooth, associated with Snaketown" Tewaktenyonh, an elderly Mohaoiven e of Snaketown to rescue Roger from captivity She had also told me the story of Otter-Tooth, and how he h it ar serly over the spiral The snake that eats its tail, he’d said

"Aye He doesnaboth hands through his loosened hair, then rubbing a hand over his face "The story ends with hi that there’s no help for it; whatever year it may be--and he had no notion--and whether he was alone or not, he would carry out his plan"

Everyone was silent for athe enormity--and the futility--of such a plan

"He can’t have thought it would work," Roger said, the rasping husk of his voice giving the words a sense of finality

Jah his eyes were clearly looking through it, dark blue and remote

"Nor he did," he said softly "What he said, here at the last"--his fingers touched the page, very gently--"was that thousands of his people had died for their freedom, thousands more would die in years to come He would walk the path they walked, for the honor of his blood, and to die fighting was no more than a warrior of the Mohawk should ask"

I heard Ian draw breath behind ht hair hid her face Roger’s own face was turned toward her, grave in profile--but it was none of them I saw I saw a h a dripping forest at night, holding a torch that burned with cold fire

A yank on lanced down to find Je on my hand

"Watsat?"

"What--oh! It’s a rock, sweetheart; a pretty rock, see?" I held out the opal, and he seized it with both hands, plu down on his bottom to look at it

Brianna wiped a hand underneath her nose, and Roger cleared his throat with a noise like ripping cloth

"What I want to know," he said gruffly, gesturing toward the journal, "is why in hell did he write that in Latin?"

"Oh He says that He’d learnt Latin in school--perhaps that hat turned hiriht if he wrote in Latin, anyone who happened to see it would think it only a priest’s book of prayers, and pay it no heed"

"They did think that--the Kahnyen’kehaka," Ian put in "Old Tewaktenyonh kept the book, though And when I--left, she gaveit back wi’ ive it to you, Auntie Claire"

"Tothe book, but nonetheless reached out a hand and touched the open pages The ink, I saw, had begun to run dry toward the end--the letters skipped and stuttered, and some words were no more than indentations on the paper Had he thrown the empty pen away, I wondered, or kept it, a useless reminder of his vanished future?

"Do you think she kneas in the book?" I asked Ian’s face was impassive, but his soft hazel eyes held a hint of trouble When he had been a Scot, he hadn’t been one to hide his feelings

"I dinna ken," he said "She kent so, but I couldna say what She didna tell lancing froer, then back "Is it true?" he asked "What ye said, cousin--about ill happen to the Indians?"

She looked up,his eyes squarely, and nodded

"I’m afraid so," she said softly "I’ a knuckle down the bridge of his nose, but I wondered

He hadn’t forsaken his own people, I knew, but the Kahnyen’kehaka were his as well No matter what had happened to cause hi my mouth to ask Ian about his wife, when I heard Jemmy He had retired back under the table with his prize, and had been talking to it in a genially conversational--if unintelligible--ed, though, to a tone of alarm

"Hot," he said, "Mu from her stool, a look of concern on her face, when I heard the noise It was a high-pitched ringing sound, like the weird singing of a crystal goblet when you run a wet finger round and round the ri startled

Brianna bent and snatched Jehtened with hi noise abruptly stopped

"Holy God," said Jali fire protruded from the bookshelf, the books, the walls, and the thick folds of Brianna’s skirts One had whizzed past Roger’s head, barely nicking his ear; a thin trickle of blood was running down his neck, though he didn’t seelinted on the table--a shower of the sharp needles had been thrust upward through the inch-thick wood I heard Ian exclaim sharply, and bend to pull a tiny shaft froan to cry Outside, Rollo the dog was barking furiously

The opal had exploded