“Why didn’t you tell him to stop?” Elodie asked.
“He was asleep.”
The professor shrugged and grinned unrepentantly. “A mind as great as mine takes no rest,” he explained, even as Algernon, groaning, bent until his face was on the table.
“Next time they offer me a field assignment,” he muttered into the wood, “I will shoot them. With a crossbow. Using a flaming bolt. The consequences will be more pleasant than this week has been.”
“Have you found the trove yet?” Professor Jackson asked, tapping Elodie’s map. As he did so, a faint blue stain washed through the air, and all three geographers went still. But in the next second it was gone again.
“Not yet,” Elodie answered. “But I think it’s down by theriver. Magic may be rising in water vapor and being transported by the prevailing southerly wind through the village, causing the atmospheric disturbances.”
“Oh look!”came a sudden cry of delight from the far side of the room. Everyone glanced over to see a glimmering blue globe spiraling gently up toward the ceiling beams. The Misses Trevallion giggled, reaching in an effort to catch it. One almost succeeded, only to have it pop like a bubble. Shards of light fluttered away, winged dreams of the sky.
Elodie turned back to the map. “Or it may be in the fields outside the village, where a lack of proper drainage has led to—” She paused as the floor trembled, rattling the table and making Algernon sit up with a yelp. “Magic leaking from groundwater and decaying plant matter,” she concluded once things had settled again. “But we searched there and found nothing. It’s so strange. I suggest we split up and go over both locations as soon as possible.”
Gabriel looked inclined to argue, but before he could, Tegan appeared, her face alight with happiness. “Baby’s awake,” she said, “and shows no signs of being enchanted. But he is a bit unsteady on his hooves.”
“Poor little darling,” Elodie answered obligingly. Gabriel muttered under his breath about the beast having slobbered green muck on his best jumper, and Elodie was about to callhima poor little darling, but she stopped herself just in time—then stopped altogether, staring wide-eyed into the mid-distance between Professor Jackson and Algernon.
“What?” Algernon asked nervously, checking over his shoulder.
“Stupid!” she said. Algernon’s face fell, and she winced.“Oh, I didn’t mean you, Algie! I’m the one who’s stupid.” She turned to Gabriel. “The flowers and leaves Baby was chewing were what enchanted him.”
Gabriel considered this, then nodded. “Makes sense. He was breathing fire, which suggests ingestion of magic.”
“They were from the Queen Mab’s garden.”
His eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“I noticed the bush he’d torn them from. That means…” The words felt too heavy to speak. She swallowed them back, shaking her head. “Professor Jackson,” she said instead, “may I use your dowsing rod?”
The professor pulled the rod from his hair, resulting in a mild explosion of white curls. Taking it, Elodie stood, and all three men watched with close interest (Gabriel), wariness (Algernon), and admiration for her opera coat (Professor Jackson) as she pointed the dowsing rod at the taproom’s floor.
It began to shudder in her grip.
Chapter Eighteen
There are worlds within worlds, and
entire universes in the heart of a woman.
Blazing Trails, W.H. Jackson
Whirling back tothe table, Elodie grinned. “I’ve found it! It’s here!” she said in an excited whisper. Then the meaning of the words struck her belatedly, and the grin vanished.
“It’shere,” she repeated in a tone of horror. “The unstable trove. It’s beneath the inn.”
“What?” Professor Jackson and Algernon exclaimed in a tumble of excitement and horror.
“Mr. Parry said he’s recently extended the building,” Elodie recollected, her pulse quickening as the answer finally came together. “He must have damaged a deposit of magic beneath the land—one dormant for so long, it’s never been discovered. But once activated, it sucked in the energy from the trove beneath the mine shaft, and…” She opened her hands, fingers spreading, in an evocative gesture.
Gabriel stood, not even noticing how his chair scraped across the ground. “Evacuation time,” he said emphatically. “I want the entire village emptied.”
“Yes,” Elodie said. “South?”
“That’s probably best. The most important thing is to keep people calm, or—”
“Aaagghh, we’re all going to diiie!”
