“Y’all c’n go to Hell!” she spat, energized and surprising even herself.

“I prolly will, ’ventually,” he agreed with a snicker. “But till then, I aims t’ hev me some fun. Don’ try an’ fight me, girl. Y’all cain’t win.”

The power tingled in her fingertips, and all her senses, including the magic ones, were suddenly filled with an acute awareness of the forest around her. She gathered in even more power, cast a shield over herself, and before he could react to that, gathered even more, and summoned—

Not the useless piskies, but the herd of wild hogs she sensed rooting in the leaf-mold, eating acorns less than a hundred yards away.

He got little more than a moment’s warning, as they turned as one, answering her call, and charged blindly through the underbrush straight for him.

What she sensed was the pigs’ sudden rage, as they reacted to her call and identified McDaran as an enemy. What she heard was the same thing he heard: underbrush crackling and snapping, and squeals of anger.

He wasn’t as stupid as she had thought he was; instead of standing there, puzzled, he reacted immediately. She sensed a darker version of the Glory surging from him, a power that actually nauseated her, as he held out his hands, turned them palm-up, and raised them.

And two monstrous critters rose out of the turf of the lane, one on either side of him.

Larger than McDaran, they looked like nothing so much as rough caricatures of humans made out of boulders. They weren’t as tall as the thing that Jolene had summoned, but they were at least twice his height.

And they moved a lot more quickly than she would have thought, getting themselves between McDaran and the squealing herd of angry swine, swinging at the pigs with club-like arms.

She backed up involuntarily as the things reduced the herd of pigs to a pile of shattered carcasses in a matter of minutes. The few survivors fled into the underbrush, leaving her facing McDaran and his critters over the pile of battered bodies, with the rank smell of blood and entrails heavy in the air. She summoned more power from the line beneath her, filling herself with it until she was afraid she might start glowing.

McDaran just smirked.

“Tol’ y’all. Yore no match fer me, girl. Y’all c’n pull whatever liddle tricks yore aunt taught y’all, an’ I ain’t even gonna break a sweat.” He tucked his thumbs into his suspenders and chuckled. “Jolene didn’ even teach y’all nothin’ wuth havin’, now, did she?”

“Why don’ y’all arsk her yoreself?” she shot back.

He whirled as he sensed power and movement behind him—and there, floating in midair, was Jolene. Not the Jolene of Ducktown, nor the Jolene in her swirly dress, who was Anna’s teacher—but the Jolene Anna had first seen, the one in the strange dress and apron of exotic materials, with trim of gold, and a halo-like headpiece of the same material. Her true form, Anna knew now. The Queen of Copper Mountain. Her eyes flashed with fury, and her beautiful lips were twisted into a frown of rage.