Epilogue
The elliptical red stone lay unobtrusively on a square of black velvet. So gentle and smooth were its lines and so soothing its color that nothing about this stone would reveal its true use-a weapon of terrible power. Next to it rested the Necklace of Verna. Cool silver gleaming in a shaft of sunlight. Smaller red stones nestled into delicate prongs fused into a stream of pure, sparkling silver.
Baobh paced around her bedchamber lost in deep thought. She had not slept or eaten much for the whole week since that bumbling soldier brought the stone to her. She recalled how his dirty hand dropped the tattered leather pouch into her open palm. She had been searching for that stone for over twenty-four years, and now it lay in her hand!
However, now her bones were filled with dread.
