‘Githlow was already in the bucket, ready to go back up the shaft, when Sheveril spooked.’

Sheveril was another new name to us.

‘Who was that?’ Adrana asked.

‘Mattice’s apprentice Opener,’ Triglav said. ‘Rack ran to a bigger crew then, and some of us were training up apprentices. Sheveril was green . . . too green as it happened. Got the shivers in the blood, and it did rum things to her. Hell, we’ve all known the shivery. That’s no admission. We’re all cowardly deep down. But it’s how you act on it, that’s what separates one bastard from another.’ He dragged a hand across his lip. ‘Sheveril tried to jump into the same bucket Githlow was already in. It tipped, and they both went down. No easy way to end that fall. One saving grace.’

‘Which was?’ I asked.

‘No lungstuff in that shaft. They went down fast.’

‘Why was that a mercy?’ Adrana asked.

‘Because once we were out of squawk range,’ Prozor said, ‘I didn’t have to hear my husband’s screams as he carried on down.’

They’d been in the bauble for eighteen hours when we heard back from them. They were tired, but very pleased with what they had found.

‘Tell Hirtshal he can ruin another set of sails,’ Trysil said, her voice coming out of the secondary console in the galley. ‘And another, if he fancies it. Loftling’s charts paid off well enough, but Mattice got us into two vaults Loftling never even cracked. There’s a lot here, more than we can ever bring back, but what we’ve already brought to the surface ought to bring us a thousand quoins, maybe more.’

Triglav cocked an eyebrow by way of appreciation. ‘What sort of prizes, Trys?’

‘Mostly from the last five Occupations, maybe one or two earlier than that. Thirty sheets of Prismatic Ironglass – tougher than any we’ve seen. A pretty jade box with a pair of duelling pistols, Empire of the Atom. A space helmet, done up with horns. A sword that teaches you how to swing it. Half a robot. A skull or two – Cazaray thinks he might be able to squeeze something out of ’em. Oh, and . . . well, you’d better wait. Cap’n wants a word.’

‘Hello, Captain,’ Triglav said.

‘Do we still have the bauble to ourselves?’ Rackamore asked.

‘Nothing close on the sweeper, and we’ve been checking it like you said,’ Triglav said. ‘It gives Hirtshal something to do.’

‘What about Jastrabarsk?’

‘Keeping his distance, like the good fellow he is. Looks as if he’ll be content to pick over our scraps, once we’ve left the table.’

‘We haven’t left it yet,’ Rackamore said. ‘Maintain the watch. Thirty-minute intervals.’

Hirtshal glanced at Prozor, but said nothing. I didn’t think they had been bothering to check the sweeper more than once or twice a watch.

‘Well, of course,’ Prozor said.