Cecelia closed her eyes. Jane felt her aunt’s magic work its way through the circle, empowering it. At the same time, the circle reached out for Jane and linked itself to her magic in turn. That was the first function of the circle. It joined both mages to the same spell while also assigning parts of that spell to each of them.

  The second function was harder to miss. A blast of magic thicker than any architectural column blasted through the water, digging a hole an eighth of a mile deep into the lake. That was Cecelia’s part: creating a magic force so powerful that the lake couldn’t help but get out of the way.

  The tunnel was straight at the moment, because the second part of the spell was Jane’s job. She had to walk through the tunnel and infuse it with intent, telling it to stay round and wide enough to walk down. She also had to compel it to extend as she continued through the lake, lengthening as much as she needed it to until she found the barrels.

  Her aunt’s eyes were closed now. Saying any more words would be counterproductive. Instead, Jane walked down to the shore, where the magic had laid a bone-dry path for her through the water. A few more steps carried her into the tunnel, headed towards the deepest parts of the lake.

  It might have been pleasant to some, but Jane knew enough to understand the risks. There was a wall of water a few inches above her head that could come down on her if the slightest thing went wrong, and the pressure of that wall just kept mounting with every step she took into the lake. After a few minutes, she knew she was deep enough that the water would knock her out in one body-slamming smash if the tunnel broke. She wouldn’t stand a chance.

  But the tunnel held. As she walked, the water took her intent in stride and moved out of the way, making the path clear for both her and the cable-loaded wagon. It was slow going. Jane tried to focus only on the next step, and then the next, and then the next. That was better than giving into fruitless speculation about just how much further she might have to go.

  Then she got lucky.

  The barrels could have been almost anywhere in the lake by now. But by some caprice of fate, they were actually right where Emily had hoped they would be, at the first place she’d marked on the map. Jane sensed the barrels through the water long before she ever saw them. They were filthy-feeling things. She hardly could have missed them, even with her eyes closed.

  As she got closer, she saw that her work was cut out for her. Though only one of the barrels seemed to be actively leaking, all of them felt compromised. The ship underneath them had long since rotted. That same passage of time had rusted the barrels and ruined their protective wards almost entirely, leaving them vulnerable.

  As slowly and deliberately as she could, Jane split her focus from maintaining the tunnel spell and began to pump magical energy into the wards, shoring them up. This kind of slap-dash repair wouldn’t hold long, but theoretically, it should be enough to get them out of the lake intact. That done, she looped the ten cables over ten of the barrels as fast as she could, cinching them securely for the return trip.

  The focus-splitting had been easier than she thought. It never seriously threatened her and her aunt’s combined effort to maintain the tunnel.

  The dragon was a different story.

  When Jane saw it in the water beyond the barrels, as big as a road, its mere presence almost collapsed her focus. She held on, if just barely. Fortunately, the dragon appeared docile enough at the moment. It was just swimming in slow, lazy circles, as if it hadn’t noticed her.

  She didn’t trust that to continue.

  Moving quickly, Jane rechecked the ten cables and turned, sprinting along the tunnel towards the safety of the shore. The return trip was faster by far, only held back by Jane’s own caution against tripping herself up on some jutting rock or grasping water-plant.

  “Jane.” Cecelia opened her eyes long enough to give her niece a brief smile. “You made it.”

  “I did. But I have what you’d probably call interesting news.” Jane leaned in closer to her aunt, where hopefully her lowest-volume whisper would be heard. She didn’t want to cause the people gathered on the docks any more stress than they were already experiencing. “The dragon is down there. It doesn’t seem angry or anything. It’s just swimming around, but you can’t miss it.”

  Cecelia’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s it for today, then. We can’t very well have you go back down there if he’s under the water. There’s just too much that could go wrong. We’ll haul up what barrels you were able to hook, and hopefully, that will be enough to slow things down until we can make another go of it.”

  Jane was relieved and upset all at once. The job could have been done today. And though she didn’t relish the idea of going back under the water, she would have to do it sooner or later. All this really did was add a side-helping of dread to the whole endeavor.

  Allen came hurrying over. “We’re going to start hauling the barrels in. As soon as that’s done, we can reset the winch for Jane’s next trip.”

  “I won’t be going back in today,” Jane said. Standing on tiptoe and speaking close to his ear, she told him of the dragon’s presence.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Allen took the news with admirable calm. Jane could see the panic in his eyes, but he didn’t give into it. He simply stood for a moment, staring thoughtfully at the magical opening in the lake’s surface.

  “In that case… Lady Cecelia, would it be possible to put the water back?” He pointed at the tunnel. “I’m thinking that the cart Jane used could act like a fishing float, which should make it a little less violent of a process for the barrels. Of course, that’s only if the water doesn’t crash back in.”

  “Oh, we can handle that. Jane, dear, would you get to your place in the spell circle? I could use the help controlling the spell cancellation.”

  Jane nodded and moved to one of the oval cavities between etchings. She let her magical sense latch onto a different part of the spell, gradually lowering the power flow until allowing it to subside completely. It was, in an odd way, like setting down a piece of furniture. There were ways to mess it up, but most of them had to do with not showing proper care, or with hurrying too much.

  She and Cecelia did neither. The spell tapered, and with it, the tunnel into the lake the slowly closed. Soon, there was nothing to indicate where the carved-out space had been in the first place.

  “Good. Now there’s nothing for it but to haul. Let’s go, boys.” Allen walked to the crank and added his strength to the two other men already working the handle. “Slow and steady.”

  The huge winch groaned as the cable began to wrap around the drum in the center of the contraption. The process was oddly smooth. Jane believed the little cart tied to the cable was helping with that. So long as there were no snags, there was a solid chance the barrels would make it out of the lake without bursting.

  The cable was reeled back, inch by inch, until it finally jerked to a stop.

  “Darn.” Allen held up a hand, halting the other men’s efforts. “We’re caught on something. Get those blocks I brought. Pile them up, just like I said.”

  “Blocks?” Jane raised an eyebrow. “What’s happening there?”

  “We pile them at the end of the pier. It will raise the angle of the cable a bit. Hopefully enough to get over whatever stone we’re trapped on.” Allen paused. “Just to confirm: it would be bad if one of these broke, right? Worse than I think?”

  With the dragon down there, somewhere between a catastrophe and the end of the region, Jane thought.

  She swallowed. “Just be gentle.”

  With the blocks in place, Allen let the cable go slack before hoisting it on top of the stack of clay blocks. Then he motioned for the men to start reeling again.

  For a moment, it looked like everything would go all right. The cable was reeling in ever so slowly. Jane could envision the caught barrels moving over the rock, sliding up whatever limited slope was there.

  Then things went slightly wrong in a way that mattered more than Jane would have thought possible. It was a simple slip, really. One of the men pushed a little harder than his boot had traction on the ground, and fell forward just enough on the crank to cause the cable to jerk.

  When the barrel shattered, there was no question that it had shattered completely. The sudden influx of the sick energy in the environment was more than Jane could take. Dizzy, she fell. She would have cracked her head on the stones if Allen hadn’t rushed forward to catch her.

  “Jane!” Allen supported her neck with his leg as he skidded to a stop underneath her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Jane was already scrambling back to her feet. Now that the initial shock was over, the pain and disorientation vanished as quickly as they had appeared. “It was just a surprise. I need you to do something for me.”

  “What? Anything. What do you need?”

  “I need you to get everyone out of here. Absolutely everyone, anywhere near here. Have them get away from the water. Don’t come back.”

  Allen looked directly in her eyes. This was the part in books where the handsome young man would try to talk her out of it, which would be wonderful if they were actually in a book. In real life, it might just get thousands of people killed. Jane saw a spark of defiant conflict in his expression for a moment, but just a moment.

  “Sure.” He nodded, stood, and bellowed at everyone on the docks. “Everyone! Run as far as you can get from here. Tell anyone you see to follow. Now!”

  Allen was respected enough that nobody questioned him, something Jane doubted she could have pulled off herself. Cecelia might have, but she was going to be busy with Jane for the foreseeable future. For all the future they might have left, really.

  “Haul them up, Jane,” Cecelia commanded, once the dock was clear. “Your little whirlwind trick is perfect for this. No need to be careful now. And if that dragon is aware enough to pick a target, we need it to be us.”

  Most of the time, it was a waste using magic to do a task that could be accomplished by physical effort. That rule was broken when the effect of a spell was perfectly shaped to the motion needed. Jane’s little whirlwind spell was. She set it loose on the crank, whipping it around at several times the speed the men had reached when cranking it by hand.

  The barrels popped out of the water and skidded to a stop on the flagstones. It was easy to see what had happened. There was a long, jagged cut in the side of one barrel, big enough that the container must have disgorged all the contents almost immediately once it was moved again. The other barrels were in better shape, but not much, leaking small amounts on the flagstone.

  I’m sorry, town. I wonder how long it will be until anyone can use this dock again.

  Jane could see the remnants of the barrel’s contents eating into the flagstone itself. She also saw her aunt wincing away from it. Jane was glad that Cecelia had carried the chipped rock from the waterfall as long as she had. Without that gradual acclimatization, Jane doubted the older woman would still be on her feet. As it was, the Grand Archmage was green around the gills.

  “Well.” Cecelia gave her head a shake and squared her shoulders. “I suppose we don’t have to hope he’ll come after us anymore. He’s definitely coming.” She gave Jane a stern look. “I get the first shot. That’s an order.”

  There was no arguing with that. Cecelia might not have had as much experience with the dragon, but if anyone could take the creature down, it was her. She had enormous reservoirs of magic that no living mage could match, and she had the authority to demand that she be given the chance to use those reservoirs. Jane could do nothing but obey her.

  The dragon was also willing to oblige Cecelia’s desire. Not a hundred feet from them, it burst from the water, as if formed from the surface itself. The creature shot nearly straight up, roaring and coiling in the air, impossibly large and unbelievable dangerous. As close as they were, Jane could see the details of every watery scale.

  The spirit’s power was full of the corruption from the barrels, roiling and chaotic in a way that set Jane’s hair on end. Here was a creation of the natural world that had absorbed elements of the anything-but. It felt its own wrongness and was liable to destroy everything around it in violent protest.

  Cecelia decided not to give it that chance.

  “I call upon the force of magic itself. Blast.”

  .

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