JANE Snake's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

Jane left the graveyard with the mass grave still uncovered behind her and walked straight toward the council district. The youngest member lived three streets past the market square in a narrow house with green shutters. She'd planned to arrive at dawn when he'd be alone, before the older council members could surround him with their careful words and political pressure. But when she reached the old weathered barn at the graveyard's eastern edge—the structure the church had used for storing memorial stones before abandoning it—she saw lamplight through the gaps in the wooden planks. A copper bell hung beside the barn door, its clapper frozen mid-swing, marking the boundary where the graveyard ended and the disputed land began. Someone had already arrived. Jane pushed the barn door open. The youngest council member stood inside next to a stone lectern covered in scattered parchment. The surface looked old, carved from something pale that might have been bone, its edges pitted and stained. Three older council members stood behind him in a half-circle. They'd brought the entire morning's agenda with them—documents, witness statements, property surveys. The youngest member looked up when Jane entered. His face showed relief, then fear, then nothing at all. The eldest councilman set his hand on the lectern. "Doctor Frost. We were just reviewing the graveyard matter with our colleague here. The church has filed a formal complaint about the excavation. They're calling it desecration." Jane met the youngest member's eyes. He looked away first. She understood then that she'd lost him—not to better arguments or political pressure, but to timing. They'd gotten to him first, surrounded him with procedure and consequence before she could offer him anything worth the risk. She turned and walked back through the barn door without answering. The hospital would have to be built a different way.