Her family members usually had pretty good luck with cons; she felt strangely proud now that she knew about her ancestry: her family's con and luck skills were because of Loki. In a way, her mom was right: she was just like her dad. But maybe that wasn't a bad thing, despite the way it sounded when her mom said it. Admittedly, her mom said it after there had been a call from the principal's office, but sometimes Laurie thought that her mother forgot the good things about her father. Being lucky-or clever-wasn't all bad.

"Maybe the twins would let us stay at their house," Laurie suggested, thinking about the possibility of convincing them through a mix of luck and tricks.

Fen laughed. "They don't even want to talk to us, and you think they're going to invite us to their house?"

"Maybe," she hedged. If it was just Fen, she'd tell him why she thought so, but she suspected that even though they were all friends of a sort, Matt still wasn't going to be too much in favor of trickery.

"I hate to agree with Fen, but he's right on this one. They ran off pretty fast." Matt paused. "When we brought up gifts, they spooked."

"Are we sure that they're on our side?" Fen asked. He rubbed his hands on his face like he was trying to wake up, and his words all sort of started to tumble out. "I mean, how much of the myth stuff is supposed to be what happens? If I could switch, they could, too. Could they be on the snake's side? And also, aren't people going to notice a big monster snake and do something about it? I get that in whenever it was, big snakes were probably hard to kill so call in the gods, but today, there are tanks, bombs, and all sorts of stuff."

Laurie didn't say anything beyond, "Fen has a point... or points, or whatever. He's right. We don't know what we're doing or where to go." She paused and then said, "And I'm tired and hungry."

Fen's burst of frustration seemed to vanish. "We'll eat. We'll figure it out."

He gently bumped his shoulder into hers.

Matt was silent as they walked. He stayed that way while they ate at a little diner. Then, as they left the diner, he looked at Laurie and casually asked, "Which way are the twins?"

Without thinking, she pointed to the left.

Fen and Matt both grinned at her, and once she realized what she'd done, she smiled, too. "I can find them," she said. "It is them, and I can find them."

"We can do this," Matt said. "The three of us, and then we'll convince the others. We're a good team."

Laurie half expected Fen to flinch away at Matt's words, but he just looked at her and said, "Lead on."

They walked away from the tourist-filled, casino-filled heart of Deadwood to the streets they'd skirted on the way from Mount Moriah to downtown. She didn't speak and neither did the boys as she followed the instinct that told her where the twins were-until she realized that they were headed back to the cemetery. That was weird.

Matt must've figured out the same thing, because he was frowning.

"Wait, maybe I'm wrong." She glanced at the boys. "I was so sure this feeling was leading us to them."

"Maybe the people we needed are still in the cemetery, and we just missed them," Matt suggested helpfully.

The frustration and fear that she was leading them on another long, pointless walk made her let out a small scream of frustration.

Fen squeezed her hand. "It's cool."

"Not really." She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. The same sensation was there, urging her, telling her which way to go. She turned away from the cemetery, but the directions remained unchanged.

She shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe they went back there, or maybe it is someone else we're supposed to be looking for."

With the boys behind her, she continued walking, but the trail ended a few moments later-not at Mount Moriah, but on Madison Street. She felt the end so strongly that it was as if she could see a trail dead-ending on the ground. The house in front of her was a sprawling mess. It looked like the owners had bought several houses on the street, demolished them all, and constructed one of those garish oversized houses that screamed "more money than we need." Laurie gestured toward the house and said, "I think they're inside there."

"Well, then." Fen snorted. "Looks like Goth Barbie and Ken are loaded, too."

Matt shook his head. "We walk in there and they get nervous again, we'll end up needing to deal with police. I'm guessing if they're looking for me in Lead, they'll be looking here, too."

Fen gave Matt an appraising look. "Not a bad point, Thorsen. So now what?"

With surprise, Laurie realized that Fen was still looking to her to lead them. "I don't know."

After a moment, Fen suggested, "We need to move away before someone reports us for loitering."

The house was near the cemetery, and the twins were obviously fond of it, so the three of them decided that the best thing to do was tuck in there and wait. Either the twins would come back, or when they went somewhere else in Deadwood, Laurie could find them. It didn't help with the convince-them-to-join-the-fight part, but convincing them meant finding them first.

SIXTEEN.

MATT.

"UNMARKED GRAVES"

When they got back to the cemetery, Matt couldn't resist the chance to take a look around, so he said they should walk through and make sure the twins weren't already there. Fen grumbled that the twins had been right up front last time and Laurie's hound-dogging had led to their house, but Matt insisted. Finally, Fen bought it and followed him inside.

They passed through the black gate. Matt walked into the cemetery proper, moving at a decent speed, but after the fourth time Matt stopped to read a sign, Fen growled.

"What?" Fen said. "Are you prepping for a history paper, Thorsen? Those twins aren't hiding in that sign."

"There are almost four thousand marked graves in here," Matt said, reading. "And that's only a third of them. Lots more are unmarked."

"They're not hiding in one of those, either," Fen drawled.

"I'm just saying it's interesting."

"Interesting?" Fen scowled. "It's a cemetery."

"In Deadwood." Matt swept a hand across the hills, dotted with graves. "Think how many of these guys died in gunfights at high noon. Isn't that cool?"

Laurie laughed softly. "I don't think it'd be too cool if you were the one dying."

"You know what I mean," Matt said. "It's a cemetery from the Wild West. That's cool."

He looked down the hill toward the town of Deadwood at the base. Trees blocked enough of it that if Matt squinted he could picture it the way it should be, with saloons instead of coffee shops and gambling dens instead of casinos. He was relaxing now, for the first time since leaving Lead. He'd messed up there. Really messed up, and he'd been sure Fen and Laurie would figure out he wasn't the leader they needed. But they'd just carried on. So now he was relaxing, feeling more like himself. Even kind of feeling like he was around friends.

"Deadwood was the last frontier," he said. "I remember reading letters on it for a project, and someone said they didn't fear going to hell because they'd been to Deadwood."

"Why was it the last frontier?" Laurie asked as they resumed walking. Fen rolled his eyes, but she gave him a look and said, "I'm interested, okay? As long as we're here, might as well get the unofficial tour."

Matt smiled. "I can do that. Never been here-my parents don't approve of Deadwood, past or present-but I know all the stories. They called Deadwood the last frontier because the town itself wasn't even legal. The land was supposed to belong to the Native Americans, but General Custer found gold here and that started a gold rush, which started the town of Deadwood. Because it was illegal, though, there wasn't a whole lotta law and order, not until Seth Bullock-a Canadian guy who became the first sheriff-came along."

Matt continued with the tour as Fen trailed along behind, shaking his head.

As they walked, Matt managed to find all the famous graves-Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, Preacher Smith, and Potato Creek Johnny-but they didn't find the twins. And they took so long getting to the back of the cemetery that they then had to search on the way out, in case the twins had come in during the meantime. Fen complained about that... and about the fact that Matt continued to stop for things he'd missed the first time, including Potter's Field. He explained to Laurie that was where most of the unmarked graves were.

"I'm going to put you in an unmarked grave if you say one more sentence with the word dead in it," Fen muttered.

"Does that include Deadwood?" Matt said, grinning.

"Yes."

Matt laughed, but Fen had a point. They really should get back to the front of the cemetery and watch for the twins.

They found a place to hide behind a monument and waited. An hour passed. Then another. Dark began to fall. Matt was out stretching his legs when he heard something cracking and snapping. He looked up to see a flag whipping in the wind.

"See something?" Laurie whispered as she crept out from behind the monument.

Matt shook his head. "Just the flag." He squinted up at it in the twilight. "It's weird. They don't lower it at sunset like most places. I read that they leave it up twenty-four hours a day and-"

"Are you at it again?" Fen said. "I swear I'll find you a nice empty grave if you keep it up."

"I'm not too worried," Matt said. "Cemetery's full." He thought of stopping there, but really, it was fun to push Fen's buttons sometimes. Especially when there wasn't much else to do for entertainment. "You know, though, there actually might be some empty graves. Back in frontier days, they'd bury prospectors here, and then sometimes their families would find out and want the bodies sent home. Except, of course, by that point, the person had been dead awhile, so digging them up and mailing them would be pretty gross. They'd just send back the bones, which meant they had to boil-"

"Hey!" Fen jabbed a finger at Laurie. "You think she really needs to hear this?"

"Actually..." Laurie began.

"No." Fen swung his scowl on Matt. "Shut it, Thorsen. Or I'll shut it for you."

"Before or after you put me in the empty grave?"

Fen growled. Matt grinned back.

Laurie stepped between them. "He's baiting you, Fen." She turned to Matt. "Stop that." Then to Fen. "You stop it, too."

"But he started-"

Her look silenced Fen, and she stalked back behind the monument. Matt and Fen followed. As Matt stepped behind the monument, though, he thought he heard something. He looked around. When he didn't see anything and turned away to ignore it, he felt a... brain twitch. That was the only way he could describe it. Like the weird sense of someone watching you, except it wasn't the hairs rising on his neck, it was a ping in his brain that said Pay attention.

Then he really felt the ping as his amulet jumped and began to heat up. He opened his mouth to say something, but wasn't sure what exactly to say and leaned out from the monument instead, peering into the growing darkness. That's when he saw two figures making their way toward the cemetery.

Norns? Valkyries? Trolls? His amulet had reacted to all three. As the figures drew closer, though, he saw that it was the twins-Ray and Reyna. So he could detect descendants, too? That hadn't happened before. Maybe it was a new power.

He tapped Laurie on the shoulder and pointed. She saw the twins and murmured that they should wait until they got closer. Fen shuffled impatiently, but he didn't argue.

Matt wasn't sure what to make of the twins. They weren't the kind of kids you saw in Blackwell or Lead or even Deadwood. Not that there was anything wrong with being different. He just... he didn't know what to make of them. That meant he didn't know how to talk to them or how to convince them to join the fight.

But that's your job, isn't it? That's the test the Valkyries gave you. Find the others and get them to join up.

The fighting part was so much easier.

He sized up the twins. The answer seemed to be to ignore the weird clothes and the makeup and just talk to them. But Laurie had already tried that.

The heat of his amulet flared, as if to remind him that he could make the twins join up. Scare them into it. The very thought made him queasy. That wasn't how a leader acted. It wasn't how Thor had acted, either. Sometimes people thought he had, but in the old stories, he always used his strength for good. To help others, not hurt them.

Matt watched the twins, now close enough for him to see their faces, set in that same the-world-bores-me look they'd had earlier. And he realized he had no idea what they could do now that they hadn't done earlier, and Fen and Laurie were expecting him to do more, to find the right words, except he didn't know them and now they'd gone through all this for nothing and- He took a deep breath. He'd talk to them. He'd be reasonable. Use logic.

Logic? They were telling these kids that they had to help them save the world. Fight a giant serpent before wolves ate the sun and moon and plunged Earth into eternal winter. Logic didn't even- His amulet began to vibrate now. He tugged the new cord and flicked it outside his shirt so he could concentrate. Only even as he was moving it, he felt the vibration, and it wasn't coming from his warm amulet. He dropped quickly and pressed his fingers to the ground. It was vibrating. Which meant it wasn't the twins making his necklace react.

Matt leaped up. "Tro-!"

He didn't even finish the word before two headstones sprang to life. They vaulted over the wall before Matt could get out from behind the monument. The twins turned and gaped.

The trolls scooped them up and swung them over their shoulders. The boy-Ray-froze. Reyna pounded at her captor's back and shouted. Matt raced from the monument, Fen and Laurie behind him, but the trolls moved lightning-fast, swinging back over the wall. As the trolls ran, another headstone jumped up and followed, and the three tore through the cemetery. All the while, Reyna was howling and struggling.

Matt raced after them, but by the time he reached the spot where they'd jumped the wall, they'd vanished into the dark cemetery. He ran in the direction they'd gone. There was no sign of them, though, and he slowed, squinting as he kept jogging forward. Finally, he saw something move over by the monument to Wild Bill Hickok.

He stopped Fen and Laurie and pointed. The troll who'd been playing backup for the kidnappers had stopped at the fence surrounding Wild Bill's grave. He was trying to shove his hand through the chain-link fence to grab at something.

"The coins," Matt whispered, remembering Laurie throwing one to the troll at Mount Rushmore.

As he moved from headstone to headstone, he could see he was right. Earlier, they'd noticed that people had reached through the fence to leave "offerings" on Wild Bill's grave. There were a couple bottles of whiskey, a flower, a set of aces, and coins. It was the last that had caught the troll's attention.

As Matt watched the troll struggling to get the money, he had to stifle the urge to laugh. It was kinda funny, like watching a six-hundred-pound tiger stop chasing a gazelle to bat at a butterfly. The other trolls were long gone.

"I'll circle around," Fen whispered. "When I give the signal, we'll both run out and jump him. Make him tell us where they took the twins."

A day ago, Matt would have thought this was a perfectly brilliant plan. But he'd fought the last troll. He knew that, as silly as this one looked, grunting and grumbling and straining for pocket change, it was still a living pile of rock... with a sledgehammer punch. Forcing Leaf to reveal the twins' whereabouts hadn't worked so well. So he motioned for Fen to hold off and just watch.

The troll spent about five minutes trying to get its oversized arm through the wire before it realized that the fence barely came up to its chest. Then it took a few more minutes to figure out how to climb over.

"Not too bright, are they?" Laurie said with a soft laugh.

That was an understatement. And something Matt needed to remember if they had to take this guy on. They didn't, though. It got the money, climbed back over the fence, and loped off. Matt motioned for them to follow.

With the other two trolls long gone, this one didn't seem to be in as much of a rush, and they were able to keep up. The troll continued over the hills, occasionally disappearing behind clumps of trees or melding with gray headstones then emerging a moment later, still on the move. Finally, nearly at the far side of the cemetery, Matt heard the twins.

"Do you really think we're stupid?" Reyna was saying. "You're working with those kids. They tell us stories about gods and trolls, and you guys show up wearing troll costumes. Lame troll costumes. I can see the zipper in the back, you know."

"I don't see a zipper," Ray's whispered voice drifted over on the breeze.

"Well, there must be," his sister said. "They've put on costumes to kidnap us for ransom. That's what you want, isn't it? Ransom?"