She got up and dressed with a lazy, slow care, choosing her favorite of her more comfortable dresses and taking time to brush her hair properly.
This is nice, she thought. Clean clothes are nice.
She made her way back to the doctor's office, half-expecting to find her aunt still asleep. Instead, she found Cecelia standing in the waiting room, dressed in what appeared to be an entirely new set of clothes and looking rather eager to be gone. That look cleared at the sight of Jane, confirming that Jane herself was the source of her aunt’s impatience.
"There you are," Cecelia said brightly. "I was beginning to think you would sleep through the entire morning."
"Where did you get those clothes?"
"A shop, Jane. There are shops here. I sent someone to fetch them this morning." Cecelia smoothed down the front of her new traveling dress. "I couldn't very well walk around in my old things. They were ruined."
"The doctor said you needed rest."
"And I rested. All night." Cecelia's expression softened slightly. "I'm fine, Jane. Truly. The leg is completely healed, and I've eaten two enormous breakfasts. Doctor Millicent has reluctantly agreed to release me."
Jane looked at her aunt more carefully. The color was back in her cheeks, her eyes were clear, and she was standing without favoring her leg. She looked liked she was ready to get back to work. Or, at least, ready in terms of condition. Jane hardly wanted her to go fighting dragons right away.
"What are you planning to do today?" she asked warily.
"Nothing." Cecelia said the word like it disgusted her. "Doctor's orders. One full day of rest before I'm allowed to do anything strenuous. Apparently, chasing magical disturbances counts as strenuous."
"It does."
"Yes, well.” Cecelia waved a hand dismissively. “I thought I might spend the day finding the best lunch in town. Seems like as good of an adventure as any. What about you? What are your plans?"
Jane thought about it. Since she wasn’t opening the shop today, there was only one thing she really wanted to do: find her friends and tell them everything.
"I think I'm going to find Bella," she said.
Cecelia smiled. "Good. Do that. I'll see you this evening."
—
Jane found Bella at her breakfast stand, cleaning up from the morning rush. Emily was there too, perched on one of the stools with a cup of something steaming in her hands.
Bella saw Jane first. She dropped the cloth she'd been using to wipe down the counter and came around the side of the stand at a near-run, pulling Jane into a hug so tight that it pushed the air from her lungs.
"You're back." Bella's voice was muffled against Jane's shoulder. "You're back. I was so worried, Jane.”
"I'm fine." Jane returned the hug just as tightly. "Everything's fine now."
"Good." Bella pulled back, her hands gripping Jane's shoulders and her eyes suspiciously bright. "I suppose I can’t scold you, but please try and avoid scaring me to death again in the future.”
"I'll try."
Bella nodded, apparently satisfied, then stepped aside and gestured at Emily. "She's been bothering me about when you'd get back. Every hour, almost. ‘Is Jane back yet? Have you heard from Jane? When do you think Jane will be back?’"
"I wasn't that bad." Emily set down her cup. "I was interested. There's a difference."
Jane laughed. The sound surprised her. It felt strange to laugh, after everything, but it also felt right. She pulled up a stool and sat down beside Emily.
"I know you just got back, but I’ve been doing some reading, and I think time might matter here.” Emily turned to face Jane, a strange level of intensity radiating from her. “I want to know everything. About the water, and about what you've been investigating. I've been picking up bits and pieces, but I want the whole story. From the beginning."
Jane looked at her friend and saw the same focus she had noticed that first day in the library. Emily was in knowledge-mode. It was like talking to a different person from the girl who had chatted with Jane over a bottle of wine.
"All right." Jane took a breath. "There's a dragon. Or there was. In the lake, I think. Or maybe in the river system generally. They're not unusual, really, not in places with this much water. The reason people don't notice them is that they're usually peaceful. A dragon could have been living in the bottom of that lake for decades without anyone seeing it, just flowing along with the currents."
"But something disturbed it," Emily said.
"Yes. Something disturbed it. What exactly could disturb an entire dragon is unknown, and that’s what my aunt and I have been trying to figure out. We found residue of the disturbance. Some wrongness in the water, and on the rocks behind the waterfall. It's been building up for a while. Years, probably. But we never found the source."
“I thought it might be something like that.” Emily’s eyes were shining now. She knew something. "I've been doing some reading."
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Of course you have."
Emily reached into the bag at her feet and pulled out a thick, leather-bound volume. "This book lists shipping histories and accidents on the lake. The town is required to keep track of them for insurance purposes. I picked it up on a hunch, based on what little I knew about your work, and I think I found something interesting."
She opened the book to a marked page and turned it so Jane and Bella could see. The handwriting was old-fashioned and cramped, but legible.
"This record is from decades ago. A boat was loaded with barrels of some kind of solvent, something used for specialty blacksmithing work. The town didn’t want it transported across city streets. I don't understand the technical details, but the point is that it was dangerous enough to require careful tracking, by town law.”
Jane leaned in to read the faded text.
Seventeen barrels, magically sealed. Contents: concentrated alkali solution for metalworking purposes. Vessel capsized in storm. Cargo unrecovered.
"So those barrels have been at the bottom of the lake," Jane said slowly. "This whole time."
"They were never recovered. Nobody knew how to get them out."
Bella frowned. "But why didn't the dragon go crazy back then? If the barrels are the problem, it should have happened decades ago."
"That's the thing." Emily tapped the page. "They were magically sealed. The town council at the time assumed the seals would hold indefinitely."
Jane understood at once. It was a common mistake, one she had seen before. People who didn’t work with magic tended to believe magic was permanent. They thought enchantments lasted forever, without touch-ups. That just wasn’t the case. Even the strongest seals degraded over time, especially in harsh environments.
"The seals are failing," Jane said. "The contents are leaking."
"That's my theory." Emily closed the book. "A little at a time, probably. Not enough to notice right away. But over years, decades, it would build up. And eventually..."
"Eventually, the dragon noticed." Jane thought about the layers of contamination behind the waterfall, and of her exploration of the lake in Frank’s boat. "Frank said he's been seeing more of those mutated fish lately. It fits. The leak has been getting worse."
Bella looked back and forth between them. "All right. So we know what the problem is. But how do we fix it? How do we get barrels out of the bottom of a lake?"
Jane smiled. For the first time since this whole thing began, she felt like she was looking at a problem she might actually be able to solve.
"I think I know how to start."
—
That evening, Jane looked around at the group assembled in her bakery.
“I’m glad you were all able to make it.”
She had pushed all her tables together to make one large table, big enough to accommodate all her guests. Emily was there, of course. Brit and Allen were there, as any equipment needs would fall to them for designing and building. Her aunt was there, to represent the magic contingent with Jane. Bella was included for moral support and general good sense.
While there wasn’t any local government force that could tell Jane and Cecelia not to do whatever they might want to do, they couldn’t quite escape the demands of propriety. That meant having a local government representative present, even if neither he nor they really enjoyed it.
“At least there’s food,” Xand commented. “This is quite the spread.”
The dinner arranged on the giant table was heavy and predominantly bread-based. Jane had personally baked a few loaves, and Cecelia had sourced several noodle dishes and salads from what she claimed was the finally-found ‘best lunch place in town.’
Xand gazed at the array of dishes with noticeable greed. “Thanks for feeding us. As you know, I can’t help with this kind of thing much, so please proceed without me. I’ll chime in on any specific town matters.”
Emily nodded and immediately rolled out a couple of maps, marked with colored chalk in a few places.
“Here’s how I figure it. When that boat went down, it would have been somewhere around here. This isn’t the deepest part of the lake, so we are hoping the boat’s still there.”
“Which it should be, right?” Brit looked up from his plate, where he was piling a large portion of pasta onto an equally large slice of bread. “Why would it move?”
“Currents,” Bella said. “The lake looks still enough, but it’s constantly moving. The water churns. It’s also shaped more or less like a bowl, so things slip down.”
“Right. So while the boat might be here, it’s just as likely that it’s here.” Emily shifted her finger an inch or so, which represented a much more significant distance in real life. “We’ll need to hope it’s in an easy position, and then move farther if it’s not. But it could be pretty deep.”
“All right, then.” Cecelia clapped her hands together. “It sounds as if I’m going diving. That should be quite the adventure.”
Jane shook her head. “No, Aunt. It has to be me.”
“Don’t be silly, Jane. I have the bulk power it takes for this kind of job. And, I might add, I am no longer injured. I am ready and willing to take this on.”
“I’m sure you are. But even though that’s true, and though your power is a bit stronger than mine, I’m still the one to do this. And I’m going to.”
Jane saw the impulse to dismiss this assertion mount in her aunt’s eyes, then pass just as quickly.
“And why?” Cecelia asked, her expression softening.
“Because that power is disorienting. You know it, and I know it. We have no way of guessing how strong it will be where the barrels sit. For better or worse, I’m much better acclimated to it than you. I’ve been exposed to it repeatedly, in both major and minor doses. It doesn’t feel great, but I can withstand it.”
“While I might get dizzy and need a rescue. I see.” Cecelia tapped her fingers on the table. “That’s that, then. Nothing for it. I’d love to argue, but there’s no argument against truth. I do have to say I have no idea how we’ll get those barrels out, when it comes to it.”
“Really?” Brit looked surprised. “Can’t you just… magic them out?”
Cecelia shook her head. “First, we have to find them. That alone will expend a great deal of power. As for getting them out, remember: they’re at the bottom of the lake, underneath tons of water. It would take an immense amount of magical force to move even one barrel up, pushing against that weight the entire time. And we know there are far more than just one.”
Brit nodded slowly and took a thoughtful bite of his noodle sandwich.
“Which leads us to mechanical solutions.” Jane turned to Allen. “Any ideas?”
“It’s both easy and hard,” Allen replied. “I can build a winch, a big geared thing that a team of men can power with a crank. That’s the easy part. I have an old salvage crane that will provide most of the parts.”
He glanced at Brit, who finished chewing and took over. “It’s hard because of those barrels. Imagine normal steel that’s been in the water that long. It would take a year or two for them to rust through. Now, these had magical reinforcement, but there’s no saying how strong they are now. I think it’s about a coinflip whether or not we get them out of there intact. We’ll need to go slow and steady.”
“Is that a risk we can really take?” Xand finally interjected. “If they burst, won’t that be bad?”
“In some ways, very bad.” Cecelia traced over the map with one finger. “The full bulk of the contamination would be out in the water. With luck, the water would sweep it away, diluting it over the course of a whole river to minimize the damage.”
Xand set down his fork. “And what if we’re not lucky?”
Cecelia shrugged. “Who can say? Nobody really knows what effect a whole barrel would have, bursting free all at once. But if we don’t do this, they will all eventually burst, one after another. That would poison the lake to some even greater degree.”
“Exactly.” Jane nodded. “We can’t just wait for that to happen. So we’re not waiting.”
Once again, she looked around at the group. Despite the gravity of the situation, she found that she was smiling.
“That’s why we’re all here today.”
.
!