Again she resisted snapping at him. “How much would it cost?”

“Quite a lot. Thirty-six osees for the first shipment of a dozen jugs. And if it’s poisoned that’s just bad luck, you don’t get a single coin back.”

Wow. She’d figured it would be expensive, but not that pricey. “What’s to keep them from just giving everyone poisoned water?”

“Once a dealer’s jugs are discovered to be poisoned, he’s out of business. No one would buy from him again. The problem is that person just hides behind another to keep selling until the guards figure him out again and lace his jugs.”

“So the guards eventually find the dealers?”

“Some of them. The ones who have stayed hidden the longest charge forty-eight osees a dozen. But they’re picky about who they sell to. We’d be too big a risk for them. Besides, we can’t afford it.”

Not yet. She hoped her talk with Aphra would be profitable. “What about food? Are there food dealers as well?”

“Jerky is always easy to get. There’s not much supervision in the smoke caverns on level four and the workers steal rolls and sell them. That’s where we’ve been getting our supply. Fresh meat, eggs, and vegetables are harder to obtain. You can’t get into the growing caverns, but the delivery people and kitchen workers can be bribed.”

She considered. “Is that how the Invisible Swords acquired food before?”

“No. Truthfully, there were only a handful of people who had to remain truly invisible and they all had magic so they slipped in the dining caverns and helped themselves without anyone the wiser. The other members either were legitimate citizens or vagrants and had their own sources of food and water.”

He didn’t say it, but Shyla sensed his impatience over her decree that they not steal. Technically, obtaining food and water illegally was stealing, but at least someone was getting paid for taking the risk.

Then there was the problem of transporting food and water to their headquarters. “Can we connect our headquarters with the city? Maybe dig an underground tunnel?”

If he was thrown by the change in subject, he didn’t react. He frowned in thought, gazing over her shoulder. “Our headquarters is further than Tamburah’s temple. It’ll take time and plenty of manpower. Plus we’d have to dig a bunch of fake tunnels to confuse anyone following us. The maze to our old hideout was the result of thousands of sun jumps’ work over the last thirteen hundred circuits.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Having just one tunnel would be a start and I think needed since traveling topside is becoming increasingly risky.”

“Can you scout out a location in Zirdai we could connect to?”