Roberts,Nora - Key 3 - Key of Valor

NORA ROBERTS

Key Of Valor

Chapter One

Zoe McCourt was sixteen when she met the boy who would change her life. She'd

grown up in the mountains of West Virginia, the oldest of four. By the time she

was twelve, her father had already run off with the wife of another man.

Even then, Zoe hadn't considered it any great loss. Her daddy was a

short-tempered, moody man who preferred drinking beer with the boys or banging

his neighbour's wife rather than seeing to his own.

Still, it was hard, since most weeks he had at least brought home a paycheck.

Her mother was a thin, nervous woman who smoked too much and compensated

for her

husband's desertion by replacing him, with some regularity, with boyfriends cut

from the same cloth as Bobby Lee McCourt. They made her happy in the short

term,

angry and sad in the long, but she'd never been able to do without a man for

more than a month straight in any case.

Crystal McCourt had raised her brood in a double-wide, slotted into a lot in the

Hillside Trailer Park. After her husband ran off, Crystal got shit-faced drunk

and, leaving Zoe in charge, hopped in her third hand Camaro to head out in

pursuit of, in her words, "the cheating son of a bitch and his godforsaken

whore."

She'd been gone for three days. She hadn't found Bobby, but she came back sober.

The chase had cost her some of her self-respect, and her job at Debbie's House

of Beauty.

Debbie's House might have been more of a hut, but it cut deep to lose the

regular pay.

The experience toughened Crystal considerably. She sat her children down and

told them things were going to be rocky and things were going to be hard, but

they'd find a way.

She nailed up her beautician's license in the trailer's kitchen and opened her

own house of beauty.

She undercut Debbie's prices, and she had a talent with hair.

So they'd gotten by. The trailer had smelled of peroxide and permanents and

smoke, but they'd gotten by.

Zoe shampooed heads, swept up shorn hair, and minded her three siblings. When

she showed an aptitude, she was given comb-outs or allowed to trim.

And she dreamed of better, of more, of the world outside that trailer park.

She did well in school, especially in math. Her skill with numbers put her in

charge of her mother's books, the taxes, the bills.

She was an adult before her fourteenth birthday, with the child inside yearning

for something more.

It was no surprise that she was dazzled by James Marshall.

He was so different from the boys she knew. Not just because he was a little

older—nineteen to her sixteen—but because he'd been places and seen things.

And

God, he was so handsome. Like Prince Charming out of the storybook.

His great-grandfather might have worked the mines in those hills, but there was

no coal dust on James. The generations between had scrubbed it all away, and

added a sheen of polish and gloss.

His family had money, the kind of money that bought class, and education, and

trips to Europe. They had the biggest house in town, as white and showy as a

bridal gown, and James and his younger sister were both sent to private schools.

The Marshalls liked to give parties, big, splashy ones with live music and fancy

catered food. Mrs. Marshall would always have Crystal come right to the house to

do her hair for a party, and Zoe often went along to do Mrs. Marshall's nails.

She would dream about that house, so clean and full of flowers and pretty

things. It was so wonderful to know people lived that way. Not everyone was

crowded into a trailer that smelled of chemicals and stale smoke.

She promised herself that one day she would live in a house. It didn't have to

be big and grand like the Marshalls', but it would be a real house, and it would

have a little yard.

And one day, she would travel to the places Mrs. Marshall spoke of—New York

City, Paris, Rome.

She saved her pennies for it from her tip money, and the pay she earned from the

odd jobs she took. Well, the pay that didn't go to helping Mama keep the wolf

from the door.

She was good with money. At sixteen she had four hundred and fourteen dollars

tucked away in a secret savings account.

In April, when she turned sixteen, she made some extra money helping to serve at

one of the Marshalls' parties. She was presentable enough, and eager for the

work.

She wore her hair long back then, a straight stream of black down her back.

She'd always been slim, but she'd blossomed in a way that had the boys sniffing

around her. She had no time for boys—or not very much.

She had long-lidded eyes of golden brown that were always looking, watching,

wondering, and a wide, full mouth that was slow to smile. Her features were

sharp and angular, adding a touch of the exotic that was a contrast to her

innate shyness.

She did what she was told and did it well—and kept, as much as it was possible,

to herself.

Maybe it was the shyness, or the dreamy eyes, or the quiet competence that

attracted James. But he flirted with her on that early-spring evening, flustered

her, and ultimately flattered her. And he asked to see her again.

They met in secret, which added to the thrill. The sheer romance of having the

attention of someone like James was overpowering. He listened to her, so her

shyness dropped away and she told him her dreams and hopes.

He was sweet to her, and whenever she could slip away they went for long drives

or simply sat and looked at the stars and talked.

Of course, before long, they did more than talk.

He said he loved her. He said he needed her.

On a soft night in June, on a red blanket spread out on the floor of the summer

woods, she lost her innocence to him with the eager optimism that belongs to the

young.

He was still sweet, still attentive, and promised they'd always be together. She

imagined he'd believed it. She certainly had.

But there was a price to pay for being young and foolish. She had paid it. And,

she thought, so had he. Maybe he'd paid much, much more than she had.

Because while she had lost her innocence, James had lost a more precious

treasure.

She glanced over at that treasure now. Her son.

If James had changed her life, Simon had righted it again. In a new way, a new

place. James had given Zoe her first taste of what it was to be a woman. The

child had made her one.

She'd gotten her house—her little house with its little yard—and she'd gotten it

by herself. Maybe she'd never traveled to all those wonderful places as she'd

once dreamed of doing, but she'd seen all the wonders of the world in her son's

eyes.

And now, nearly ten years after she'd first held him, first promised him she

would never let him down, she was moving forward again, with her son. She was

seeing to it that Simon had more.

Zoe McCourt, the shy girl from the West Virginia hills, was about to open her

own business in the pretty town of Pleasant Valley, Pennsylvania, with two

women

who'd become as much sisters as friends in two short months.

Indulgence. She liked the name. That was what she wanted it to be for the

clients and customers. It would be work, hard work, for her, for her friends.

But even the work was a kind of indulgence, as it was labor they'd all dreamed

of doing.

Malory Price's arts and crafts gallery would occupy one side of the main level

of their sweet new house. Dana Steele's bookstore would stand on the other. And

her own salon would spread over the top floor.

Just a few more weeks, she thought. A few more weeks of remodeling and

freshening up, of setting up supplies, stock, equipment. Then they would open

the doors.

It made her belly jump to think of it, but it wasn't only fear. Some of those

jumps were pure excitement.

She knew exactly how it would look when it was done. Full of color and light in

the main salon, then softer, relaxing tones in the treatment rooms. She would

have candles set around for fragrance and atmosphere, and interesting pictures

on the walls. Good lighting to flatter and to soothe.

Indulgence. For the mind, the body, the spirit. She intended to give her

customers a bit of all three.

On this evening, she drove from the Valley where she made her home, and would

make her business, into the mountains. Where she would face her fate. Simon

brooded a little, staring out the window. He wasn't happy, she knew, that she'd

made him wear his suit.

But when you were invited to dinner at a place like Warrior's Peak, you dressed

for the occasion.

Absently, she tugged at the skirt of her dress. She'd gotten it at the outlet

for a good price, and hoped the deep purple jersey was appropriate.

Probably should've gotten something black, she mused, to be more dignified and

sober. But she so enjoyed color, and for this event she needed the punch of it

for confidence. Tonight was one of the most momentous nights of her life, so she

might as well go outfitted in something that made her feel good.

She pressed her lips together. Now that her thoughts had circled around to what

she'd tried to avoid thinking about, she had to deal with it.

Just how, she wondered, was she going to explain to a nine-year-old boy what

she'd been doing—and more, what she was about to do?

"I guess we'd better talk about why we're going up here to dinner tonight," she

began.

"I bet nobody else is wearing a suit," he muttered.

"I bet you're wrong."

He turned his head, slanted her a look. "Dollar."

"Dollar," she agreed.

He looked so much like her, she thought. Sometimes it just struck her with a

kind of fierce and possessive joy. Wasn't it funny that there was nothing of

James stamped on that face? Those were her eyes, that was her mouth, her nose,

her chin, her hair, all tipped just the slightest bit to make them Simon.

"Anyway." She cleared her throat. "You know how I got that invitation to go up

there, a couple months ago? And that's where I met Malory and Dana."

"Sure, I remember, because the next day you bought me PlayStation 2, and it

wasn't even my birthday."

"Unbirthday presents are the best." She'd been able to buy Simon his heart's

desire with part of the twenty-five thousand dollars paid to her for agreeing

to… the fantastic.

"You know Malory and Dana, and you know Flynn and Jordan and Bradley."

"Yeah, we hang with them a lot now. They're cool. For old people," he added,

with a smirk he knew would make her laugh.

But she didn't laugh.

"Something wrong with them?" he asked quickly.

"No. No. Absolutely nothing's wrong." She chewed her bottom lip as she tried to

find the right words. "Um, sometimes people are sort of connected, without even

knowing it. I mean, Dana and Flynn are brother and sister—well, stepbrother and

stepsister, then Dana gets to be friends with Malory, and Malory meets Flynn,

and before you know it, Malory and Flynn fall in love."

"Is this going to be a sloppy love story? Because I might get sick."

"Be sure to lean out the window if you do. So, Flynn's oldest friends are Jordan

and Bradley, and when they were younger, Jordan and Dana used to… date." It

was

the safest word a mother could think of. "Then Jordan and Bradley moved out of

the Valley. Then they came back, partly because of this connection I'm getting

to. And Jordan and Dana got back together and—"

"Now they're going to get married, and so's Flynn and Malory. It's like an

epidemic." He was turned to her now, and his face mirrored preadolescent pain.

"If we go to those weddings like we did Aunt Joleen's, you're probably going to

make me wear a suit, aren't you?"

"Yes, it's one of my quiet pleasures, this torment of you. What I'm trying to

show you is that each of us turned out to be connected, one way or another—to

the others. And to something else. I haven't told you much about the people who

live at Warrior's Peak."

"They're the magic people."

Zoe's hand jerked on the wheel. Slowing, she pulled off to the shoulder of the

winding road. "What do you mean by 'magic people'?"

"Jeez, Mom, I hear you guys talk when you have those meetings and junk. So are

they like witches or what? I don't get it."

"No. Yes. I don't know exactly." How did she explain ancient gods to a child?

"Do you believe in magic, Simon? I don't mean the card trick kind, but the kind

of thing you read about in stories, like Harry Potter or The Hobbit"

"If it wasn't real sometimes, how come there are so many books and movies and

junk about it?"

"Good point," she said after a moment. "Rowena and Pitte, the people who live at

the Peak, the people we're going to see tonight, they're magic. They come from a

different place, and they're here because they need our help."

"For what?"

She had his attention and interest now, she knew. The interest that took him

into the stories she'd mentioned, X-Men comics, and the role-playing video games

he loved.

"I'm going to tell you. It's going to sound like a story, but it's not. But I

have to start driving again while I tell you, or we'll be late."

"Okay."

She took a long, quiet breath as she pulled back onto the road. "A long time

ago—a really, really long time ago, in a place behind what they call the Curtain

of Dreams, or the Curtain of Power, there was this young god—"

"Like Apollo?"

"Sort of. But not Greek. He was Celtic. He was the son of the king, and when he

was of age, he visited our world and he met a girl and fell in love."

Simon's mouth twisted. "How come that always happens?"

"Can we get into that area of things later? We're a little pressed for time. So,

they fell in love, and even though it wasn't really allowed then, his parents

let him bring the girl home with him so they could be married. This was okay

with some of the gods, but it wasn't okay with some of the others. There were

battles and—"

"Cool."

"The world split into two kingdoms, I guess you could say. One with the young

god becoming ruler with his human wife, and the other ruled by, well, a wicked

sorcerer."

"Way cool."

"The young king had three daughters. They call them demigoddesses because

they're part human. Each of the daughters had a special gift. One was music, or

art, another was writing, or knowledge, and the third was courage, I guess.

Valor."

It made her mouth a little dry to think of it, but she swallowed and went on.

"She was a kind of warrior. They were very close to each other, the way sisters

should be, and their parents loved them. To keep them safe while there was this

trouble going on, they had them guarded and taught by a warrior and a teacher.

Then—try not to groan—the warrior and the teacher fell in love."

He let his head fall back and stared upward. "I just knew it."

"Not being sarcastic nine-year-old boys, the daughters were happy for them, and

covered for them when they slipped off a little way to be alone. So these girls

weren't guarded as well as maybe they should have been. The wicked sorcerer took

advantage of that, and he snuck close and cast a spell. The spell stole the

souls of the daughters and locked them in a glass box with three locks and three

keys."

"Man, that sucks for them."

"It sure does. The souls are trapped there, in the box, and can't get out until

the keys are turned in the lock—one by one—and only by the hand of a mortal. A

human."

Because her fingers tingled, she rubbed them on the skirt of her dress. "See,

because they were half human, this sorcerer made it so only someone from our

world could save them. Because he didn't think it could be done. The teacher was

given the keys—but she can't work them—and she and the warrior were cast out,

and into this world. In every generation they have to ask three humans, the

three humans who are the only ones who can unlock the box, to find the keys.

They have to be hidden and found as part of the quest, part of the spell. And

each one of the chosen has to go in turn, and has just four weeks to find the

key and put it in the lock."

"Wow, are you one of the ones who has to find a key? How come you were

chosen?"

She let out a little breath. Her son was a bright and logical boy. "I don't know

exactly. We look—Mal, Dana, and I—we look like the daughters. The Daughters

of

Glass, they're called. Rowena's an artist, and she has a painting of them at the

Peak. It's connections, Simon. There's something that connects us to each other,

to the keys, and to the daughters. I guess you could say it's fate."

"If you don't find the keys, they're just stuck in the box?"

"Their souls are. Their bodies are in glass coffins—um, like Snow White.

Waiting."

"Rowena and Pitte, they're the teacher and the guard." He nodded. "And you and

Malory and Dana have to find the keys and fix everything."

"Pretty much. Malory and Dana have already had their turns, and they each found

the key. It's my turn now."

"You'll find it." He gave her a solemn nod. "You always find stuff when I lose

it."

If only, she thought, it was as simple as finding her son's favorite action

figure. "I'm going to try as hard as I can. I have to tell you, Simon, the

sorcerer—his name is Kane—he's tried to stop us. He'll try to stop me. It's

really scary, but I have to try."

"You'll kick his butt."

The laugh eased some of the knots in her stomach. "That's my plan. I wasn't

going to tell you all this, but then it didn't seem right not to."

"Because we're a team."

"Yeah, we're a great team."

She paused at the open gates of Warrior's Peak.

The gates were flanked by two stone warriors, hands ready on the hilts of their

swords. They looked so fierce to her, so formidable. Connections? she thought.

What connection could someone like her have to warriors at the gate?

Still, taking a deep breath, Zoe drove through.

"Holy cow," Simon said beside her.

"And then some."

She understood his reaction to the house. Hers had been the same wide-eyed,

slack-jawed stare the first time she'd seen it up close.

Though "house," she supposed, was too ordinary a word for the Peak. Part castle,

part fortress, it stood high over the Valley, rose up like the majestic hills

and ruled them. Its peaks and towers were made of black stone with gargoyles

perched on eaves as if they might leap, not so playfully, at their whim. It was

a massive place, surrounded by lush lawns that slid into thick woods gone

shadowy with evening.

High on the topmost tower flew a white flag with the emblem of a golden key.

The sun was setting behind it, so the canvas of the sky was streaked with red

and gold, adding yet another layer of drama.

Soon the sky would be black, Zoe thought, with only the thinnest sliver of moon.

Tomorrow was the first night of the new moon, the beginning of her quest.

"It's really something inside, too. Like something you'd see in a movie. Don't

touch anything."

"Mom."

"I'm nervous. Give me a break." She drove slowly toward the entrance. "But,

really, don't touch anything in there."

She stopped the car, and hoped she wasn't the first, or the last, to arrive,

then took out a lipstick to replace what she'd worried off since leaving home.

Automatically, she flicked her fingers over the ruler-straight ends of the hair

she now wore shorter than her son's.

"You look good, okay? Can we go?"

"I want us to look great." She caught his chin in her hand, and used the comb

she'd plucked out of her purse to tidy his hair while he crossed his eyes at

her. "If you don't like what they give us for dinner, just pretend to eat it,

but don't say you don't like it, or make those gagging noises. I'll fix you

something else when we get home."

"Can we go by McDonald's?"

"We'll see. We're fine. We're great. Okay." She dropped the comb back in her

purse and started to open the car door.

The old man who greeted guests and took care of their cars was there to do it

for her. He always made her jump. "Oh. Thank you."

"My pleasure, Miss. Good evening to you."

Simon gave him a long study. "Hi."

"Hello, young master."

Liking the title, Simon grinned at him and walked closer. "Are you one of the

magic people?"

The creases in the old face deepened and shifted into a broad smile. "It might

be I am. What would you think of that?"

"Sweet. But how come you're so old?"

"Simon."

"It's a good question, Miss," he said in response to Zoe's horrified hiss. "I'm

so old because I've had the pleasure of living a long time. I wish you the same

pleasure." He leaned down with a creak of bones until his face was level with

Simon's. "Would you like to know a true thing?"

"Okay."

"We're all of us magic people, but some know it and some don't."

He straightened again. "I'll see to your car, Miss. Have a nice evening."

"Thank you." She took Simon's hand and walked to the portico and the twin

entrance doors. They opened before she could knock, and there was Rowena.

Her flame-tipped hair tumbled gloriously over the shoulders of a long dress the

green of forest shadows. A silver pendant hung between her breasts, its clear

center stone winking in the sparkling light of the entrance hall.

As always, her beauty was a quick shock, like an electric jolt.

She held out a hand in welcome to Zoe, but her eyes—a bolder, richer green than

her gown—were all for Simon.

"Welcome." There was a lilt to her voice, echoing those of the foreign lands Zoe

had once longed to see. "It's good to see you again. And such a pleasure to meet

you, Simon, at last."

"Simon, this is Miss Rowena."

"Just Rowena, please, for I hope we'll be friends. Come in, won't you?" She kept

Zoe's hand in hers, and touched the other to Simon's shoulder.

"I hope we're not late."

"No, not at all." Rowena stepped back, leading the way over the tile floor with

its colorful mosaics. "Most of the others are here, but Malory and Flynn haven't

yet arrived. We're in the parlor. Tell me, Simon, do you like calf's liver and

brussel sprouts?"

He made gagging noises before he remembered his mother's order, but even as he

caught himself Zoe was flushing. And Rowena's laugh flowed around them. "Since

I

feel exactly the same, it's fortunate they're not on the menu tonight. Our

latest arrivals," she announced as she stepped into the parlor. "Pitte, come

meet young Master McCourt."

Simon slid his gaze up to his mother, nudged her with his elbow. "Master," he

said with great satisfaction, out of the corner of his mouth.

Rowena's lover matched her in looks. His powerful warrior's build was garbed in

an elegant dark suit. His mane of black hair swept back from a strong face where

the bones seemed carved under the flesh. His eyes, a brilliant blue, studied

Simon as he lifted one elegant brow and extended a hand.

"Good evening, Mr. McCourt. And what can I offer you to drink?"

"Can I have a Coke?"

"Certainly."

"Please, be at home." Rowena gestured.

Dana had already risen to cross the room. "Hey, Simon. How's it going?"

"Fine. Except I lost a buck because that guy and Brad are wearing suits."

"Bad luck."

"I'm going to go talk to Brad, okay, Mom?"

"All right, but—" She sighed as he dashed off. "Don't touch anything," she added

under her breath.

"He'll be fine. How about you?"

"I don't know." She looked at her friend, one of the people she'd come to trust

completely. The dark brown eyes looked back at hers with an understanding that

only one other person could have. "I guess I'm a little wound up. Let's not

think about it yet. You look great."

It was perfectly true. The dense brown hair fell in a sleek, swinging bell two

inches below Dana's strong chin. It was a good look for her, if Zoe, who'd

styled it, said so herself.

Roberts, Nora - Key 3 - Key of Valor

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