Gift of Fire

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  Spencer looked mildly surprised. “I didn’t hurt her. I didn’t have to. I told you, she can’t get out. Stupid woman ran right into the tunnel. She’ll never find her way out. It took Hazelhurst months to learn how to operate the tunnel doors. Even if she finds the lock, it won’t work. I jammed the mechanism on the outside. The only witness, you see. She’s the only witness, the only one who saw me put Maggie’s body into the tunnel.”

  Jonas thought of Verity lost in the endless darkness of the hidden corridor. If she couldn’t get out through the torture chamber door, she would have to find her way back to the bedroom entrance. And he’d never explained to her how to operate the door mechanism. She would be shivering in abject terror there in the endless blackness of the tunnel, searching for the secret to unlocking the door.

  Jonas looked deep into Slade Spencer’s insane eyes. He wasn’t going to learn anything else from this bastard. He slammed his fist into Spencer’s jaw, and the man dropped to the ground without so much as a gasp. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

  Jonas left Spencer lying in the mud and ran for the villa. The wind howled through the trees. Branches snapped at him and the rain was a sheet of ice.

  He burst through the front door of the silent villa and took the stairs to the second floor in great, hungry strides. Then he was racing down the hall to the bedroom.

  Jonas pounded into the bedroom. The tunnel door was closed. He struggled furiously with the mechanism behind the tapestry and watched the stone door swing ponderously inward. It seemed to take forever.

  A quick glance through the widening crack showed no sign of Verity. Either she had not been able to find her way back to the bedroom, or she was still trying desperately to open the door at the other end of the tunnel.

  Jonas stepped through the opening as soon as there was room. He shone the flashlight quickly to the right. Verity wasn’t anywhere in sight.

  A rattle of bones and a scraping sound from behind the tunnel door made him whip around in a dangerous crouch. The flashlight beam illuminated the face of his beloved.

  Verity emerged from behind the door with a stark, savagely determined expression. Her eyes were strangely unfocused. Her arms were raised above her head, her hands clutched around the hilt of the stiletto that had been buried in Digby Hazelhurst. Digby’s bones rattled at her feet. Jonas stepped hastily out of reach and held up both hands. “Easy honey. I’m a reasonable man. You want to delay the wedding a couple of weeks while you buy a fancy dress? We’ll delay the wedding, no problem.”

  “Jonas!” Verity dropped the stiletto. It clattered on the stones as she flung herself against his chest. “It’s about time you got here.”

  “Always nice to feel appreciated.” Jonas wrapped his arms around her and held her so tightly he was afraid she would break. But all she did was give a small squeak. “Jesus, honey, I was scared. But I should have known I wouldn’t find you huddled shivering in terror. Did anyone ever tell you that you do a nice impression of Lady Macbeth?”

  “You were scared! You want to compare notes? I’ve never been so frightened in my life. And I couldn’t see who was coming into the tunnel a minute ago. It’s so dark in here that I was blinded when you opened the door. I thought it might be Slade.” Verity lifted her head, her eyes wide. She was blinking rapidly. “Jonas, Spencer’s nearly killed Maggie. She’s at the other end of the tunnel, unconscious and bleeding. We’ve got to get her out. Then we’ve got to do something about Slade.”

  “I’ve already taken care of Spencer. I found him making a try for the boat. He panicked, thinking he’d killed Maggie and sealed both of you in the tunnel. I gather he lost what was left of his nerve at that point and decided it was time to vacate the premises. I don’t know how far he thought he was going to get in this storm.”

  “But where is he? What did you do with him?”

  “He’s tied up outside. Come on, let’s get out of here. I’m sure you’ve had enough of this tunnel to last you a lifetime.”

  “We’ll have to get Maggie out. We can’t just leave her there.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Jonas said gently. He urged Verity out into the bedroom. She was shaky but in control of herself. That was the thing about tyrants, he told himself with pride. They were tough. Then he saw her looking down at something she had just pulled out of her pocket. “What have you got there?”

  Wordlessly she opened her palm and displayed an egg-shaped piece of green crystal.

  Jonas took a step closer, awed by the realization of what she had found. “Where the hell did you get that?” he asked softly.

  “It’s Maggie’s. She had it on that chain she always wore around her neck. Digby must have given it to her. I found it when I checked her throat for a pulse. I must have grabbed it when I heard Spencer returning. Funny, I didn’t even realize…” She looked up at him, her aquamarine eyes questioning. “It’s the right one, Jonas. It’s the crystal you’ve been looking for, the one you think will unlock the vision.”

  Jonas’s gaze went from the ugly green crystal to her serious face. “Spencer says that all he or Hazelhurst ever found were the stiletto, that chunk of sword hilt, and a ruby ring. But he’s convinced the rest of the treasure is still buried here somewhere.”

  “And so are you,” Verity concluded quietly. She looked down at the crystal. “Do you believe in curses, Jonas?”

  “No, but I have great respect for the intricate workings of the Renaissance mind. And a psychic Renaissance mind boggles the imagination. I don’t think there’s a curse on the treasure but I do believe that someone has locked it up very carefully. Hazelhurst believed that crystal was the key, and I think he might have been right.”

  Verity looked at him, her expression unreadable. “You’re going to try it, aren’t you? Sooner or later, you’re going to try to unlock that frozen vision.”

  “If I don’t, I’ll probably wind up as nutty as Hazelhurst or as insane as Spencer,” Jonas said harshly. “I have to know the truth about it, Verity.”

  She nodded. “Yes. I can see that.” She carefully repocketed the crystal. “When the time comes you’ll need my help.”

  Jonas was startled. “What makes you say that?” he demanded as she started to turn away.

  She glanced back, her mouth softening slightly. “I can tune this crystal to the one on the desk in the vision.”

  He took a long stride forward and caught her by the arms. “Verity? What are you saying? Are you sure?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. I’m fairly certain I can do it. Don’t ask me how Jonas. I really don’t understand it myself. And if you want my professional opinion as your business manager, I suggest we forget the whole project. But I know you don’t want my professional opinion.” She turned away again and went into the bathroom to wash the dirt and blood off her hands.

  After a little fiddling with a screwdriver he’d located in the kitchen, Jonas managed to open the torture chamber entrance. Spencer had been too panicked to do a thorough job of jamming the mechanism.

  Inside the passageway Maggie was still unconscious. Jonas managed to get her upstairs to the salon, where he put her on the couch. She didn’t awaken but her breathing seemed steady and the bleeding had stopped. Verity left her tucked under a quilt and went outside with Jonas to retrieve Slade Spencer. They locked him in a spare storage room.

  “What are we going to do with him?” Verity asked as she followed Jonas upstairs.

  “There’s nothing we can do until Warwick and Crump get back with the launch. We’re sure as hell not going to try to get off this island in that little skiff Spencer rented. In the meantime, I want to see if we can find those missing diary pages in Spencer’s things. He may have kept them.”

  “Doug and Oliver might not be able to get back here for hours,” Verity remarked as they walked down the hall toward the room Spencer had used.

  “True.�
�

  “We’d better wake Yarwood and tell him what’s going on. To think that all this time we wrongly suspected him of being up to no good,” Verity said, chagrined. “I suppose it must have been Spencer who pushed Elyssa off the cliff. Maybe he thought she was getting suspicious about the boat.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Jonas said thoughtfully. “You mentioned finding the boat earlier and he never made an attempt on your life.”

  “He didn’t make an attempt on my life then, but he tried to do something nasty to me before that,” Verity stated quietly.

  Jonas’s head snapped around abruptly, his eyes fierce. “What? He tried to hurt you? When?”

  “That night we stayed in the bed-and-breakfast inn.”

  “The joker who tried to grab you outside the bathroom?” Jonas asked in amazement. “It was him? You’re sure?”

  “I recognized the tobacco he uses. I just caught a whiff of it on his sweater that night, not enough to make a real impression. I didn’t recognize it when he was smoking his pipe around here because the odor was so much stronger then—it overpowers you. But when I caught a trace of it again in the torture chamber, I knew it was the same tobacco. No one else smokes around here except Spencer.”

  Jonas started back down the hall, his fury reignited. “I’ll kill him.”

  Verity grabbed his arm. “No, wait, Jonas. There’s no need for that. He’s already under lock and key.”

  “I should have strangled him the night he made a pass at you.” He shook off her hand.

  Verity made another grab for him and caught hold of his sleeve. “Jonas, stop it. Listen to me. Everything is under control, there’s no need for any more violence. Lord knows there’s been enough in this place. Let’s go wake Yarwood and tell him what’s going on. He’s got a right to know.”

  A door creaked. Verity and Jonas both turned.

  “I’m glad you feel that way, Verity.” Preston Yarwood stood in the doorway of his bedroom. I would very much like to know exactly what is going on. And when you’ve finished telling me, we’ll all go searching for Hazelhurst’s missing treasure. But when we find it, I’m afraid there will be a slight change of plans. You see, too many psychic treasure hunters spoil the image.”

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Yarwood,” Jonas asked softly.

  “I’ve decided we don’t need your name attached to this particular find, my friend. You’re a fraud, you see. I’m the one with real psychic talent around here, and finding the treasure is going to prove that once and for all. This is my project, and I’m the one who’s going to get the credit. When this is all over, people will be forced to admit that I’ve got psychic power. And with you and Verity mysteriously gone, there won’t be anyone left alive to tell them differently.”

  Verity stared in shock at Preston Yarwood’s face for a long time before her eyes dropped to the gun in his hand.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jonas contemplated the gun in Preston Yarwood’s hand. The man looked as though he knew exactly what he was doing with it. The report says he’s dangerous, Caitlin Evanger had said.

  “There’s no treasure, Yarwood.” Jonas edged a few steps away from Verity, making it more difficult for Yarwood to keep both of them covered with the weapon.

  “Don’t try to bullshit me, Quarrel,” Yarwood said genially. “The treasure is here, I know it. I’ve had a psychic premonition of it all along.”

  “Talk about bullshit,” Jonas muttered. “You’ve just got treasure fever.”

  “I know it’s here,” Preston snapped. “I had sections of Hazelhurst’s diary translated, you see. Not all of it, but enough to know he was onto something. It’s here, I tell you. And I’ve heard enough this morning to convince me you’re close to the answer. So you’re going to take me with you when you unlock the secret.”

  “I’m telling you, there is no treasure, Yarwood.”

  Yarwood’s eyes flared angrily. “Don’t give me that. I know you’ve found something important. I heard enough in the lab at Vincent College to know you’re capable of it. That’s why I had you hired. You’re going to show me where the treasure is, goddammit. And you’re going to hurry up about it, too. Crump and Warwick will be back as soon as this storm passes. Come here, Verity.”

  Jonas tensed, knowing what was going to happen next. “Leave her alone, Yarwood. I’ll cooperate. But I’m warning you, there’s nothing to find.”

  “There’s something here. And you know where it is. You’re going to show me. Come here, Verity. Get over here now or I’ll start putting large holes in your bedmate.”

  Verity took a reluctant step forward.

  “Don’t get near him, Verity.” Jonas spoke quietly. “He wants to use you as a hostage.”

  Yarwood smiled faintly. “You’re so right, Quarrel. And if she doesn’t get over here this instant, I’m going to put the first bullet through your arm. You’ll still be capable of leading me to the treasure without the use of one arm. You could do it without the use of either arm, in fact.” He raised the pistol.

  “Stop it,” Verity snapped. She walked stiffly to stand in front of Yarwood.

  “Dammit, Verity.” But it was too late and Jonas knew it. He watched in impotent fury as Yarwood grabbed Verity’s arm and pulled her close against his side. “Let her go, Yarwood. I told you, I’ll cooperate. I’ll show you what we’ve found, but I’m warning you, it isn’t much. Just an empty chest in a hidden room. Spencer was here ahead of us, Yarwood. Hell, there was probably someone else ahead of him. Maybe someone a century or two ago back in Italy. The treasure’s gone.”

  “I don’t believe you. There’s the crystal,” Yarwood snapped, his gaze going hungrily to Verity’s hand. “It’s still here. I read enough of Hazelhurst’s diary to know that no one gets anything without the crystal. And you’ve got it, don’t you? Open your hand, Verity. Show it to me.”

  Verity opened her palm and displayed the green crystal. “It won’t do you any good, Reston. You don’t know how to use it. None of us do.”

  “We’ll find out, won’t we? Show me this hidden room you’ve found, Quarrel.”

  “I’ve told you, there’s nothing in it, you stupid bastard.”

  “Show me, or I’ll start putting bullets in the little lady.” Yarwood pushed the barrel of the gun against Verity’s throat.

  “No. Don’t hurt her, damn you. If you want to see the room, I’ll show it to you. But it won’t do you any good, there’s nothing in it.” Jonas wanted to kill Yarwood more than he’d wanted anything in his life. Verity said nothing. She just looked at Jonas with a calm trust that was shattering.

  “Let’s go see this hidden room.” Yarwood yanked Verity a little closer.

  Jonas thought about the stiletto lying amid the tangle of bones just inside the bedroom entrance. “This way,” he said quietly, leading the way toward the bedroom he had shared with Verity.

  Yarwood followed, hustling Verity ahead of him. The end of the gun never wavered from her throat.

  When Jonas pushed open the bedroom door, the gaping hole that marked the entrance to the hidden corridor was immediately evident. Yarwood stared at it in fascination.

  “A hidden passage,” Yarwood whispered. “Where does it lead?”

  “To the empty treasure room.” Jonas hooked a thumb in his belt. “Got any problems with claustrophobia, Yarwood? Because the passage is as narrow as virtue and darker than sin. It’s a long walk to the treasure room.”

  “Don’t try to scare me, Quarrel.” There was a feverish excitement in Yarwood’s gaze now. “Just be sure you don’t try anything clever once we’re inside. I can kill Verity before you can do anything to me.”

  Verity spoke up, her voice soft. “There’s a body inside, Preston.”

  That jolted him slightly. “Whose?” he demanded.

  “Hazelhurst’s, we think,�
�� she said. “In the end he decided the treasure was cursed. Slade Spencer came to agree with him, I think. Maybe they were right. Neither one of them ever got to enjoy any of it.”

  “Show me the room,” Yarwood ordered as he pushed her roughly toward the hole in the wall. “You first, Quarrel.”

  Jonas obediently moved toward the entrance. He picked up the flashlight and his new jacket en route. He wasn’t going to have much time to scoop up the stiletto and hide it in his deep jacket pocket. He needed a distraction. “Let me kick Hazelhurst’s body out of the way, first. It makes Verity queasy.” He could only hope the prospect of having to step over a pile of old bones was making Yarwood queasy, too.

  “Go ahead,” Yarwood said quickly. “Get it out of the way. Jesus. Did the old bastard really die in there?”

  “Yeah. Hell of a place to croak, huh?” Jonas stepped into the entrance. He kept the flashlight aimed at the opposite corridor wall. The floor was in darkness except for the wedge of light that filtered in from the bedroom. He could just barely make out the tip of the stiletto among the scattered bones. Behind him Verity started talking rapidly, her voice tremulous. She had guessed what he was trying to do and was doing her part to distract Yarwood.

  “It’s awful in there, Preston,” she said. “Hazelhurst’s bones are lying all over the floor. You can see the skull and everything. It’s easy to imagine how he must have been struggling to find the exit mechanism when he died. It’s enough to give you nightmares. I think he was right. I think he found the treasure and died from the curse that was put on it.”

  “Shut up, you silly woman,” Yarwood said impatiently. But he stayed back with Verity while Jonas crouched down on the floor of the corridor. “Hurry up, Quarrel.”

  “I’m hurrying, but it’s a mess in here.” Jonas silently thanked Verity for being willing to play the frightened, weak-kneed female. She was giving Yarwood a few second thoughts about rushing into the endless darkness of the corridor. Jonas decided he might as well add a few subtle suggestions of his own. “Got to be careful this door doesn’t close on us while we’re inside. Wouldn’t want to end up the same way Digby did. You want to grab that chair to prop it open, Yarwood?”