This was serious-damnation. Not my car.

"Several vehicles were smashed in the battle," she said.

I laid my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. Fun and harrowing times flashed through my mind. Kissing Katie for the first time, drive-in movies, hauling away auction finds, getting run off the road, racing to find Katie . . . maybe a new vehicle wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Jimmy said Rolph's truck is at the farm."

"Where's Rolph?"

She didn't answer right away.

"Was he killed?"

"No one's seen him since that night," she said. "Jimmy figures he died somewhere we haven't found yet. Not too many places overlooked out at Black Briar." She turned to me. "Had a helluva time keeping Qindra from snooping too far and wide. She knows there's something there we don't want her to know about."

I watched the slower traffic on the right as we sped along, thank God for carpool lanes. "I need to clarify a few things with you folks when Deidre gets out of the hospital," I said. "I need to know all the details. What are these artifacts and weapons Jimmy is hiding?"

"Yeah. Jimmy said it was time to bring you into the inner circle."

Inner circle? "Well, I killed several giants, some trolls, and one big-assed dragon. Think I've passed initiation?" I was starting to get angry. "Jesus, why'd you keep that from me? I thought we had trust."

"I tried," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You even told Jimmy about how flaky I was from time to time."

Ouch! Maybe I was more like my da than I liked to admit. I reached over and put my left hand on her leg, squeezing it briefly. "I'm sorry."

"You weren't ready," she said, patting my hand. "Besides, the fates had other things in store for you, it seems."

"At least."

We rode a while in silence.

"I should have listened to you. Respected you enough to try and understand what you were saying."

She glanced at me, furtively, trying to see my face and watch the road at the same time. "You are a stubborn ass."

I laughed. What else could I do? She was right, of course. I'm sure Julie would agree on many levels. "Guilty as charged."

"Are we witnessing a changed woman?" she asked, a smile flirting with her face.

"Definitely," I agreed. "Through the fire, and all that."

Her face grew serious again. "No sarcasm now," she said. "If we are going to make a go of this again, I need more honest emotion and less witty repartee."

"I'll try." And that must have been good enough for her, because the rest of the drive was peaceful and full of hope. She practically glowed. Damn, she was so beautiful. I had to keep that in my mind at all times. Not just that she was sexy as hell, but she had a real spirit in her, a goodness that changed the world around her.

Rolph's pickup was sitting near the house. I climbed in the driver's side, totally unlocked, and poked around. The keys were under the visor. I leaned over and opened the glove box. The insurance card was there, said it was paid up for the next four months, full coverage. I don't know if he had any payments left to make, but I just needed a ride for the next few weeks.

Under the owner's manual, I found a familiar envelope. "Look at this."

Katie opened the passenger side door and took the envelope from me. "Looks like the one Frederick gave you," she said.

The seal had been broken, so she tipped it up, dropping three papers on the seat.

It was a near copy of the deal I had. Partial ownership in Flight Test, Ltd., some returned family heirlooms, and a cashier's check for one hundred thousand dollars.

"Crikey," she said. "These checks are free money. At this point, you have one hundred fifty thousand dollars."

I took the check from her, thinking about everything I could do with it: house, smithy, new car. And after everything that we had all been through, I thought that taking the money and not giving the sword to Frederick was just about fair and wouldn't make a dent in my idea of honor. "Give it to Jimmy," I said. "Tell him to use it for those who have fallen."

She looked at me a moment and smiled. "Good plan," she said, leaning into the truck and kissing me.

Totally worth it.

Seventy-two.

I DROVE UP TO EVERETT. THE ONLY BANDAGES LEFT WERE THE ones on my wrist, where the bone had shown through at one point. Not a bad deal.

My grip in my right hand was still pretty weak, but I'd get back most of it. Just hard work. The doctors suggested guitar, piano, and knitting. I'd do the exercises and figure something out.

I pulled into the little Mexican place Jennifer preferred and saw her sedan. I parked around the side, where the truck could not be seen from the street, and got out. My reflection didn't suck. My hair was about two inches long-not bad, considering.

I grabbed the envelopes from the dash, climbed out, and closed the door. Jennifer would be very interested in the two agreements I was bringing her. Something I bet they had not been aware of.

The waitress showed me to a booth out on the deck. Jennifer sat in the sun, her shades hiding her eyes.

"Hi," I said, scanning her face. Not a fair conversation there, keeping her eyes covered in mirrors. "I'm sorry, but with all that has gone on, could we sit inside, where we aren't in the direct sun?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, standing quickly. "I didn't think . . . what a moron . . . I'm so . . . ," she stammered, and nearly fell over her chair trying to rise.

I reached out and grabbed her shoulder with my left hand. "It's okay," I said.

She took off her glasses and looked at me sheepishly. "You look pretty good, all things considering."

The waitress took us back inside and gave us a small table near the window. Soon we had chips and salsa, as well as a pitcher of water. My kind of service.

"How are you?" Jennifer asked as I crunched into a chip.

I held up my right arm. "Recovering well enough."

She watched me, unsure of how to proceed. "How come you didn't tell me there was another shoot?"

There it was. It didn't take us long to get right down to it. She was out of the loop. Only, there was no loop. Not before Nidhogg.

I shrugged. "Long story."

"I see," she said, bringing her water glass to her lips.

"These will add to the mystery," I said, laying the papers on the table for her. "Not only was he dealing a second movie on the side"-I hated perpetuating the lie-"he was also trying to sell a greater share of the business than he owned."

She looked through the papers, her brow furrowing. "For a sword?" she asked. "The black one we used in Elvis Versus the Goblins?"

I nodded.

"What a bizarre little man."

"Bizarre?"

Her eyes narrowed and she leaned forward. "Looks fair, feels foul."

I laughed. She was such a movie nerd.

She wasn't mad at me. She didn't like Sawyer.

And that was it.

I had chicken flautas and she had pollo de creme. It was lovely. We chatted about the movie, Carl, and how JJ was being so pissy about all of it.

"Frederick has him convinced he's the next Matt Damon," she said, scooping up refried beans with a tortilla chip. "Honestly. The man is insufferable."

"What about the bimbette?" I said, holding my hands in front of my breasts like cupping watermelons.

Jennifer giggled. "Carl believes Frederick when he tells him the movie will sell twenty percent better with enough breast shots, but . . ." She leaned over her dish and whispered. "I told him he could see my breasts if it helped."

"Oh my God! You did not." I loved this woman.

She blushed, but did not lose the smile. "You should've seen him. Like a kid on Christmas morning."

I raised my eyebrows. "TMI, but, you know . . . did you?"

She shrugged. "We made out a little, but that's it . . . so far."

I could tell she had this thing under control. "Good for you."

She was quite pleased with herself. "But, this movie thing, the sex scenes and all . . . He's ashamed to tell his parents."

I laughed. "He's how old?"

"Thirty-three," she said, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I know."

"Besides embarrassing his mother, what does he think about the intrusion?"

She grew serious. "Frederick flusters him. Keeps him off balance."

Not a surprise. I'd hate to have his attention directed at me ever again. "I'm sure JJ likes the whole sex aspect of everything."

"Between you and me," she said, shaking her head, "Juanita, one of JJ's girls, disappeared several weeks ago. He's been despondent."

That made no sense. "He was just using her for sex," I said. "She wanted to get married so she could get her green card and he wasn't interested."

"Well, Babs told me she ran off with Rolph."

I choked, spitting water down the front of me.

Hope no one recognized the truck in the lot. "Thought he died in the fire," I said.

She shrugged. "No idea. Wasn't listed in the papers and the insurance guy was pretty thorough. By the way, local union is pissed Frederick hired folks from Vancouver for the shoot. Why didn't you tell me about it?"

As I watched her, the unease and concern on her face, I realized I had no interest in keeping the dragon's lies. I liked her too much for that.

"Jennifer . . ." I took a deep breath, steeling myself. "I can't play this game. Not with you."

She looked even more confused, but didn't say anything, letting me get it out.

"There was no movie shoot," I said. "You know what happened in part. That bastard Duchamp had snatched Julie and Katie."

"Yes, I remember," she said, watching my face. "I was going to get around to that mess."

So, I told her the whole story. I didn't have anything to lose. Either she believed me, or she wrote me off as crazy.

In the end, it was a little of both. But, I'm not sure I could blame her.

"I heard that phone call," she said. "Everyone there heard it. That's the part that makes all this"-she waved her hand around the room-"movie shoot thing fall apart."

"People believe what they are told, for the most part," I said, echoing Katie. "If the explanation is more reasonable than the truth, we accept it."

"That's what we are all about, the illusion of life," she said.

That was the connection. The dragons lived with illusion. Qindra countered it at the battle. And here, the movies were all about illusion and glamour. No wonder Frederick was drawn to it.

More grist for the mill. Katie would have an insight, I'm sure.

The rest of lunch was delightful.

As we walked out, we paused at Jennifer's car. She hugged me with warmth, not like those fake hugs strangers give. It was pleasant, friendly.

"You know," she said as she unlocked her car, not looking at me, "we did say a few weeks."

"What?"

"Your vacation and all," she said, turning her head to the side to see me. "You could come back to work when you are ready."

And there you have it, folks. Honest to goodness joy. It just burst all over me like an . . . well, like a warm sudsy bath, actually, which is what I wanted after weeks of hospital sponge baths.