Gift of Fire

of day, he put out a friendly hand, which Jonas accepted with casual ease. The four of them, Jonas and Verity, Doug and Elyssa, were seated in the resort’s solarium. The glass walls provided an expansive view of Sequence Lake shimmering in the cold sunlight. Elyssa was dressed in white again, Verity noticed—white pants, white sweater, white shoes. Her jewelry sparkled in the sunlight.
    “Sorry about the misunderstanding last night,” Doug said. Verity thought it was very generous of him. She smiled at him warmly.
    “I appreciate your helping Verity last night,” Jonas said somewhat grudgingly. Then he sprawled in a lounger and eyed his potential clients.
    “How are you feeling today, Verity?” Elyssa examined the now famous ankle. “Can you put any weight on it yet?”
    “A little. It’s still sore, but it should be back to normal in a few days. Laura found this cane for me and it’s been a great help.” She waved a hardwood staff aloft. “It’s left over from two years ago, when Rick threw his back out.”
    “I have a friend,” Elyssa went on helpfully, “someone I met in one of Preston’s seminars. He works with crystals. He could probably do something for you.”
    “I should warn you, my sister is really involved in this crap,” Doug Warwick said in an aside to Jonas.
    “Pay no attention to Doug,” Elyssa retorted gently. “He’s still very linear in his thinking. He doesn’t understand that the paths to enlightenment don’t always follow the straight, one-dimensional approach of most Western thought. He hasn’t accepted a holistic approach to truth yet, but I have confidence that he will one day soon.”
    “Don’t hold your breath,” Doug muttered.
    “I think some of the New Age ideas are very interesting,” Verity declared. `After all, it’s not as if they’re really new. Some of these concepts have been around for thousands of years. There must be some truth to them.”
    “Con men have a long history, too,” Jonas said blandly. “That doesn’t mean there’s any more truth in a modem-day con than there was five thousand years ago. That’s all most of this New Age stuff is, a good con.”
    “Jonas!” Verity glowered at him, willing him to shut his mouth before he mortally offended one of their potential clients. “Don’t pay any attention to him, Elyssa. He’s just got a typical academic bias against nontraditional methods of learning.” A heck of a bias for someone who happened to have psychic abilities himself, Verity thought wryly.
    “I understand completely,” Elyssa assured her, gazing at Jonas. She appeared to be infinitely indulgent of his petty carping. She turned back to Verity. “Will you be able to accompany Jonas to our villa with that injured ankle?”
    “Oh, definitely. I’m looking forward to it.” Verity nodded briskly, trying to pump some enthusiasm into Jonas. He ignored her.
    “I can give you a report on the villa easily enough,” Jonas said. “But I understand you also want me to chase some damned legend. I should warn you that from what Verity has told me, it sounds like a complete waste of time. Are you sure you want to pay my, uh, consulting fee to help you hunt for a treasure that probably doesn’t exist?”
    Doug chuckled. “It must sound a little silly to you, but I assure you that Uncle Digby was on the trail of something in that villa. Elyssa wants to see if we can find it before we get rid of the place. Since you’ll be going over the villa anyway, you might as well keep an eye out for treasure.”
    “What makes you think your uncle Digby wasn’t just loony tunes?”
    “Jonas!” Verity hissed. He was being downright rude.
    Elyssa smiled serenely. “It’s all right, Verity. Doug and I have also wondered about Uncle Digby. He might very well have been completely insane. He was certainly an odd character. But he definitely believed there was a treasure buried in that old villa. He left a diary detailing his search for it. Unfortunately, he kept his notes in Latin. He also found a crystal at one point.”
    “Crystal?” Verity tilted her head inquiringly.
    Doug nodded. “I saw it myself about five years ago. Digby showed it to me shortly after he found it. He was sure it was a key of some kind. It’s green, about two inches long. It’s egg-shaped and very smooth, with tiny, odd-shaped little facets cut into the bottom. It disappeared a couple of years ago along with Uncle Digby. He either hid it somewhere or had it on