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IT WAS STILL broad daylight; the candleflame was nearly invisible, no ht froht it, and sat down behind his desk

"Ye didna sense anything odd about yon stone when ye gave it to the lad, Sassenach?"

"No" I still felt shaken by the explosion, the echoes of that eerie noise still chi in the roo that noise"

"Noise?" He looked at , d’ye mean?"

Noas my turn to look askance

"No--before that Didn’t you hear it?" He shook his head, a slanced round at the others Bree and Roger nodded--both of the interested, but puzzled

"I didna hear a thing," he said "What did it sound like?"

Brianna opened her mouth to answer, but Jahean Je?"

Je in his randfather out of wide blue eyes that had already begun to show a definite slant, and slowly nodded, not reave ye--it was hot?"

Jelare of intense accusation in uilt--followed by a ht have happened, had Bree not snatched him up at once

We had picked most of the splinters out of the ork; they lay on the desk in a small heap of brittle fire One had sliced a tiny flap of skin fro silver blood

"My God, those things are sharp as broken glass"

"They are broken glass" Brianna clutched Jem a little closer

"Glass? Youforward to pick up one of the needlelike shards

"Sure it is--but opals are glass Really hard volcanic glass Geemstones because they have a crystalline structure that makes them pretty; opals just have a really brittle structure, co to coh she kept her arhtly round her son

"I knew you could break one if you hit with a ha that" She nodded at the pile of glie shard out of the pile with finger and thumb and held it out to me

"Put it in your hand, Sassenach Does it feel warerly It was thin, nearly weightless, and translucent, sparkling with vivid blues and oranges

"Yes," I said, tilting my palm cautiously to and fro "Not remarkably hot--just about skin temperature"

"It felt cool to me," Jamie said "Give it to Ian"

I transferred the bit of opal to Ian, who put it in the palertip, as though it were soht bite hilass, like Cousin Brianna says"

A bit more experih not strikingly so--to Brianna, Roger, and me--but not to Jamie or Ian By this ti clock candle, allowing Jaemstones hidden there He fished them out, rubbed the last of the hot wax off on his handkerchief, and laid thee of the desk to cool

Jereat interest, his hille ruaidh?" Ja out of histoward the stones

"Hot," he said, then, re his srandfather said He took a deep breath and picked up the emerald, a crudely faceted stone the size of his thumbnail "Put out your hand, a bhalaich"

Brianna looked as though she wanted to protest, but bit her lower lip, and encouraged Jerandfather asked He took the stone, still looking suspicious, but then the look of wariness faded into a smile as he looked down at the stone

"Pretty rock!"

"Is it hot?" Brianna asked, poised to snatch it out of his hand

"Yes, hot," he said, with satisfaction, holding it against his stomach