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his
thick fingers.
    Breen mumbled something and Per, increasingly
irritated, barked, “Speak up!”
    Breen repeated, more clearly this time. “I
had it, I had in my hands. Slippery little suckers, those…”
    Per stepped backed. “YOU had the Night Prism?
I don’t believe you.”
    Breen blinked a few times, wiped his bleary
eyes, and reached slowly into his inside coat pocket. He felt
around for a moment and pulled out a small metal snuff box, which
he opened and held out.
    Per peered at the contents. Inside, pinned to
the bottom of the box, was frayed piece of silvery fabric, the
length of a man’s pinkie finger. The fabric twisted and turned
against the pin.
    Per looked up at Breen, his scowl gone, a
small but respectful grin in its place.
    “You realize what someone would have paid for
that? Where’d you find it?”
    “Down the Liquid Mines.”
    “Hmmm.” Doubt had crept onto Per’s face
again, his eyebrows high, as if he might ask a question. But
instead he stepped forward and studied the tin again. The proof was
right there, the captured fabric scintillating, even in low light.
He looked up at Breen.
    “That’s not your regular route, is it? That’s
Grainer’s territory. You better hope he doesn’t find out. What were
you doing way over there?”
    “I was doing a job.”
    “What job would that be? Poaching another
trader’s pieces?”
    Breen shook his head defensively. “Someone
asked me to stand guard. Watch and listen, they told me. Paid me
upfront in Coin. Wasn’t doing nothing wrong.” The last sentence
trailed off in mumbling. Breen was accustomed to being accused of
wrong-doing.
    “Watching and listening for what?” Per
squinted, his eyes honing in on Breen’s mouth, which puckered and
unpuckered grotesquely even when Breen was not speaking. Per winced
as Breen licked his lips.
    “Anyone or anything. Wasn’t no one supposed
to be there. It was closed off, like, at the top. I had to climb
down on this long metal ladder hammered into the stone. At the
bottom, it was real quiet, just a lot of brush and even a few
trees. I was alone down there. Hadn’t really thought about it, how
dull it would be just to sit around. Nothing happening. So boring,
watching and waiting. It was torture, after a while, all that
sitting. I got to hoping something would happen. Make me feel like
I earned that money. Anyway, in the end, no one came and no one
went. But they’d told me, wait until someone comes to let you go.
Like I said, they paid me upfront and I’m a man of my word, unlike
a lot of traders out there. They knew my name, too, so I couldn’t
walk off the job. I’m responsible you know.”
    “Sure you are, as responsible as they come,”
Per nodded as he poured himself a tall glass of brownish
liquid.
    Breen grabbed Per’s hand, sloshing some of
the brown liquid on the bar top.
    “Careful you fool, what’s gotten into
you!”
    Breen leaned and eyed Per’s beverage. “I sure
could use a drink myself. All this talking is thirsty work, you
know.”
    “Oh, so now you’re demanding, are you? You’re
already running on credit, three weeks back, you owe me. What’d you
do with all that Coin they paid you? Some of that should be coming
my way.” Per poured Breen a short glass of the brown liquid.
    Breen’s glassy eyes shown with Carbon Fever.
“It was like they knew someone would be coming, as I remember. They
seemed so certain.” He sipped his glass, trying not to gulp it all
down in one swallow.
    “So I waited. Started digging around in the
bushes. I was hungry, thought there might be fruit or something.
It’s lush down there, so peaceful. I was eating berries, I’d found
some blue ones that looked ok. Was picking them right of the
branch. Then there, at the base of the bush, all bunched up and
covered in dirt, there’s this shiny thing.”
    “The Night Prism.”
    Breen wiped his shiny brow. “That’s right. I
dug around it and picked it up, shook it out. It started to jump
and tug