But this was not any of the three versions of Jolene that Anna had seen before.

Her hair looked like red, spun copper, and in it she wore another of those odd, half-moon-shaped crowns, but this one was in the form of a snake that twisted around and back and through its own coils, and it could only be what the old songs called “pure red-gold.” The copper-colored lizards had entwined themselves in her hair, their shining hides hard to distinguish from her shining hair. Her green eyes glowed—actually glowed, in what Anna guessed was yet another manifestation of how powerful she was.

But what she wore was more astonishing, in its way, than anything else about her! There could be no dress like this anywhere on the face of the earth.

In style, this gown was not unlike the first one that Anna had seen her wearing: a kind of whole-body apron with wide shoulder straps, over a chemise. But the chemise was of the thinnest, whitest, softest material that Anna had ever seen; the incredible gown was like no fabric she had ever laid eyes on. It looked like hammered copper, but it moved like silk. And the wide trim that formed the straps and the neckline and ran around the bottom hem of the gown was four inches wide, and sewn so thickly with genuine gems that nothing of the fabric beneath was visible. The gems winked and gleamed softly in the indirect light, sending off rainbows of color, daring her to disbelieve that they were genuine. So many gems, so many colors, and she couldn’t have put a name to more than a handful of them. From reading her Bible, she knew rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires, but what were the tawny yellow ones? And the pink and pale blue? What were the purple and the ones that were half pale purple and half light green?

She found herself speechless in the face of this display of wealth and magical power. And yet all of it paled beside Jolene’s beauty. All Anna could do was stare, rooted in place. And she might have stood there for an entire day, unable to make a start at addressing Jolene, except for the noise that interrupted them, the sound of a human voice, a man’s voice, that came faintly from somewhere above and echoed down through the mountain.

“Jolene!” bellowed the distant voice. “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene . . .” cried the echoes.

“Tha’s Billie McDaran!” Anna gasped, both hands spasming into fists, as fear gripped her once again.

“So it is,” Jolene said casually, leaning on one arm of the throne and raising her hand to stroke a lizard on her shoulder. “I doubt that he has the wit to follow you—I doubt he has the wit to think you would come here. So he must be looking for my help in finding you.” She raised an elegant eyebrow. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with McDaran? Really, Anna, I am greatly disappointed. I went to very great pains to arrange that the two of you should make a pair of it.”