Dana crunched on her bagel. “Might as well give in to it. He’ll just wear you down, which is another thing he’s really good at. He’s like a damn Border collie.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know how they herd sheep?” She used her free hand, zagging it right and left to demonstrate. “How they keep heading them off, working them around until the sheep end up going where the collie wants them to go? That’s Flynn. You’ll think, nope, I want to go over here, and he’s thinking, well, you’ll be better off over there. So you end up over there before you realize you’ve been herded.”

She licked cream cheese off her finger. “And the hell of it is, when you find yourself there you almost always realize you are better off. He stays alive by never saying I told you so.”

She’d gone to dinner with him, hadn’t she? Malory considered. Kissed him—twice. Three times if she was going to be technical. And he was not only coming with her to Warrior’s Peak, he was driving her. Huh.

“I don’t like being maneuvered.”

Dana’s expression was a combination of pity and amusement. “Well, we’ll see how it goes.” She rose, gathering her dishes. “What are you hoping for with Rowena and Pitte?”

“I don’t expect to get much from them. It’s the painting.” Malory followed Dana into the little kitchen. It didn’t surprise her to find books here as well, stacked in an open-fronted pantry where the average cook would have stored food staples.

“The painting’s important somehow,” she continued while Dana rinsed off the dishes. “What it says, and who said it.”

She took a moment to explain the rest of the tale as Flynn had relayed it to her over dinner.

“So they’re taking on the roles of the teacher and the guard.”

“That’s the theory,” Malory confirmed. “I’m interested in how they’ll react when I broach it. And I can use Flynn to distract them long enough to give me time to get another look at the painting and take a couple of pictures of it. That could lead to other paintings with similar themes. It might be helpful.”

“I’ll do a search on mythological art this morning.” Dana checked her watch. “I’ve got to go. The three of us should get together on this as soon as we can.”

“Let’s see what we come up with today.”

They walked out together, and Malory stopped on the sidewalk. “Dana. Is it just crazy to do all this?”

“Damn right. Call me when you get back from the Peak.”

IT was a more pleasant, if less atmospheric, drive on a sunny morning. As a passenger, Malory could indulge herself with the scenery and wonder what it was like to live high on a ridge where the sky seemed only a hand span away and the world was spread out like a painting below.

A fitting view for gods, she supposed. Lofty and dramatic. She had no doubt Rowena and Pitte had chosen it for its power as much as for the privacy.