Page 142 of Harnessed in Gold

Rime’s eyes cut to mine. “Do you remember where that was, little psychic?”

“The site of the massacre? Yeah, I think so.”

“The pin’s still on my phone,” Leo tells us.

Rime turns for the door. “Then let’s go.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Leo waves him back. “We need more information.”

Topaz already has an arm in her jacket sleeve. “Why? Browne said where it is.”

“Not specifically,” Leo counters, facing down their scowls.

I jump in, “Whereon the other side of the river? Right on the bank? Under the water? Back further in the woods?”

“Exactly.” Leo nods firmly. “Browne doesn’t answer any of those questions.”

“Um,” Liv pipes up. “Just so y’all know, the river’s changed course a little over the past four hundred years. So, you know, what Browne said was across the river might not be anymore.”

Leo frowns. “If his measurements were even all that accurate to begin with. He probably only had a telescope and a quadrant to work with.”

Rime groans.

Aaron asks Liv, “How much of a change are we talking about here?”

“Maybe a couple yards difference.” She gestures for the laptop.

“So we could still get close enough for Betts to feel it?”

“Probably. Especially since we know the exact spot the massacre happened.”

I lean to the side to see what Liv is looking up, and a thrill ripples through me. “Guys, come here. Look at this!”

From behind us Leo marvels, “You’re in the database.”

“Well, yeah,” she says. “All EnSci students have access to the database.”

“Robin and I got in there, but we didn’t know how to interpret what we were looking at.”

“Well, this—” Liv hits a few keys. “—is an animation of the river’s course over time.” A squiggly red line winds through a black and white topographical map. Liv hits another key, and the line shifts a few millimeters. Another and it jumps again, this time more significantly, especially in places where it takes the sharpest turns. She says, “So here’s where they think the river was four hundred years ago.”

Leo takes out his phone and opens the map app. Together, he and Liv compare where he’s pinned the massacre site to her river maps. The conclusion? In the area we’re scoping, if all the maps can be trusted, the river has shifted 2.61 yards and widened 28 inches.

“Please tell me we don’t have to calculate anything,” Avery begs, wearing the same deer-in-headlights look I get when someone starts throwing numbers around.

Liv laughs. “Nah. We don’t need to be that exact. Just keep in mind that, on that opposite side, the riverbank is about seven feet further back than it was in Browne’s time.” She looks from face to face, just now realizing everyone is hovering and staring at her. “Um, anything else you want to know while I’m in here?” She flicks a hand at the screen.

“Actually—” Leo leans lower, his shoulders slicing between Liv and me. “In case that lead box isn’t doing its job anymore—” He rubs his bristly chin as his curious eyes rake over the screen.

I rise and offer him my chair.

“We’ll search that whole area,” Liv tells him as he sits down beside her. “And see if anyone has found anything weird there. Diseases, mutations, barren spots—you know, that kind of stuff.”

Leo smiles. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

She giggles as she searches. “Has Betts told you how much she loves ten-legged frogs?”

When they both look up at me, I fake a gag.