Shed done something to her hair, he realized, some girl thing that added mysterious light to that dense brown. It made her eyes seem darker, deeper. God, how many times had he felt himself drowning in those rich chocolate eyes?
Hadnt he been entitled to come up for air?
In any case, hed meant what hed said to her before. He was back now, and she was just going to have to get used to it. Just as she would have to get used to the fact that he was part of this tangle shed gotten herself into.
She was going to have to deal with him. And it would be his pleasure to make sure she had to deal with him as often as possible.
Rowena rose. There was something in the movement, in the look of her, that tickled something at the edge ofJordan s memory. Then she stepped forward, smiled, and the moment passed.
“If youre ready, we should begin. I think its more suitable if we continue this in the other parlor.“
“Im ready.” Dana got to her feet, then looked atZoe . “You?”
“Yeah.” Though she paled a bit,Zoe clasped hands with Dana. “The first time, all I could think was dont let me be first. Now I just dont know.”
“Me either.”
They moved down the great hall to the next parlor. It didnt help to brace himself,Jordan knew. The portrait swamped him, as it had the first time hed seen it.
The colors, the sheer brilliance of them, the joy and beauty of subject and execution. And the shock of seeing Danas body, Danas face—Danas eyes looking back at him from the canvas.
The Daughters of Glass.
They had names, and he knew them now.Niniane ,Venora ,Kyna . But when he looked at the portrait, he saw them, thought of them as Dana, Malory, andZoe .
The world around them was a glory of sunlight and flowers.
Malory, dressed in a gown of lapis blue, with her rich gold curls spilling nearly to her waist, held a lap harp.Zoe stood, slim and straight in her shimmering green dress, a puppy in her arms, a sword at her hip. Dana, her dark eyes lit with laughter, was gowned in fiery red. She was seated and held a scroll and quill.
They were a unit in that moment of time, in that jewel-bright world behind the Curtain of Dreams. But it was only a moment, and even then the end was lurking.
In the deep green of the forest, the shadow of a man. On the silver tiles, the sinuous glide of a snake.
Far in the background, under the graceful branches of a tree, lovers embraced. Teacher and guard, too wrapped up in each other to sense the danger to their charges.
And cannily, cleverly hidden in the painting, the three keys. One in the shape of a bird that winged its way through the impossibly blue sky, another reflecting in the water of the fountain behind the daughters, and the third secreted among the branches of the forest.
He knew Rowena had painted it from memory—and that her memory was long.
And he knew from what Malory had discovered and experienced, that moments after this slice of time, the souls of the daughters had been stolen and locked away in a box of glass.
Pittelifted a carved box, opened the lid. “Inside are two disks, one with the emblem of the key. Whoever chooses the scribed disk is charged to find the second key.”
“Like last time, okay?”Zoe gave Danas hand a hard squeeze. “We look together.”
“Okay.” Dana took a slow breath as Malory stepped up, laid a hand on her shoulder, thenZoes . “Want to go first?”
“Gosh. I guess.” Closing her eyes,Zoe reached into the box, closed her hand over a disk.
With her eyes open and on the portrait, Dana took the one that remained.
Then each held her disk out.
“Well.”Zoe stared at her disk, at Danas. “Looks like Im running the anchor lap.”
Dana ran her thumb over the key carved in her disk. It was a small thing, that key, a straight bar with a spiral design on one end. It looked simple, but shed seen the real thing—shed seen the first key in Malorys hand, burning with gold, and knew it wasnt simple at all.
“Okay, Im up.” She wanted to sit, but locked her shaky knees instead. Four weeks, she thought. She had four weeks from new moon to new moon to do if not the impossible at least the fantastic.
“I get a clue, right?”
“You do.” Rowena took up a sheet of parchment and read:
“You know the past and seek the future. What was, what is, what will be are woven into the tapestry of all life. With beauty there is blight, with knowledge, ignorance, and with valor there is cowardice. One is lessened without its opposite.
“To know the key, the mind must recognize the heart, and the heart celebrate the mind. Find your truth in his lies, and what is real within the fantasy.
“Where one goddess walks, another waits, and dreams are only memories yet to come.”
Dana picked up a snifter of brandy, drank deep to untie the knots in her belly. “Piece of cake,” she said.
Chapter Two
McDONALDSintroduced the Big Mac in 1968.” Dana swiveled lazily in her chair at the librarys resource desk. “Yes, Mr. Hertz, Im positive. The Big Mac went system-wide in 68, not 69, so youve had a year more of the secret sauce than you thought. Looks like Mr. Foy got you on this one, huh?” She laughed, shook her head. “Better luck tomorrow.”
She hung up the phone and crossed the Hertz/Foy daily bet off her list, then meticulously noted todays winner on the tally sheet she kept.
Mr. Hertz had nipped Mr. Foy at the end of last months round, which netted him lunch at the Main Street Diner on Mr. Foys tab. Though for the year, she noted, Foy was two points up, so he had the edge on bagging dinner and drinks at the Mountain View Inn, the coveted annual prize.
This month, they were neck and neck, so it was still anybodys game. It was her task to officially announce the winner each month, and then, with a great deal more ceremony, the trivia champ at years end.
The two had kept their little contest going for nearly twenty years. Shed been part of it, or had felt like part of it, since shed started her job at the Pleasant Valley Library with her college degree still crisp in her hand.
The daily ritual was something she would miss when she turned in her resignation.
Then Sandi breezed by with her bouncy blond ponytail and permanent beauty-contestant smile, and Dana thought there were certain things she would definitely not miss.
The fact was, she should have given her two weeks notice already. Her hours at the library were down to a stingy twenty-five a week. But that time could be put to good use elsewhere.
Shed be opening her bookstore, her part of Indulgence, the communal business she was starting withZoe and Malory, in just a couple of months. Not only did she have to finish organizing and decorating her space in the building theyd bought, but she had to deal with ordering stock.
Shed applied for all the necessary licenses, had already combed through publishers catalogues, fantasized about her sidelines. She would serve tea in the afternoon, wine in the evening. Eventually she would hold elegant little events.Readings , signings, appearances.
It was something shed always wanted to do but had never really believed she could accomplish.
She supposed Rowena andPitte had made it possible. Not only because of the twenty-five thousand in cold, hard cash theyd given her and the others as an incentive to agree to the quest, but also by putting her together with Malory andZoe .
Each of them had been at a crossroads of sorts the first night theyd met at Warriors Peak. And theyd made the turn, chosen the path to follow together.
It wasnt nearly as scary thinking of starting her own business when she had two friends—two partners—doing the same thing.
Then there was the key. Of course, she couldnt forget the key. It had taken Malory nearly all of the four weeks allowed to find the first. And it hadnt been all fun and games. Far from it.