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Most of round The rest I put here Boneriders fill some of these cells The Jackal’s own I only e’d been able to throw Lilath in this pit instead of giving her the easy way out by shooting down her destroyer till it crashed into Luna’s surface In co the traitor that the newsreels say I am

We pause outside a cell door “Is everyone going to behave themselves?”

“Are you, bossman?” Clown asks “You almost cut off his head last time”

“Alht of the Gold in the dark hall on that Luna night, his bare face covered in Howler blood, has not lefthe’s outsideto killto be civil?”

He shrugs

“Good enough”

I disengage the lock The door whines and the blue light encircling the handle goes dark Steelingout of the way of my ae and feces The cell is a dank concrete box E pallet, and a shirtless, gaunt man He faces away froh sun-starved skin Greasy white hair spills off the side of the pallet He turns to look at us with black eyes sunk deep in a tattooed face I take an involuntary step back, seeing my time with the Jackal in the man’s body

“What the hell? That’s an Obsidian,” Sevro says

“Winkle, the package is ,” I say “Are you certain he is in cell O-2983?”

“Positive I’ at the roster now He’s stated as present in his cell No medical intake info or labor duty This is bad, bad, bad, bad”

“Yes, thank you”

“Then who the hell is this?” Sevro asks The prisoner stands very slowly He’s no giant like Sefi He stands barely six and a half feet and is as thin as Alexandar He’s past fifty, with a deeply receding hairline, a filthy beard, and more tattoo ink than I’ve ever seen on a man

He watches us with intelligent, curious eyes Not holding himself like a warrior, but as if he were a sinistertheory on a holoboard A set of tattoo spirit eyes stare at me when he blinks The only men ear that ink are shaman of the Ice And most of them are women

Sevro steps toward the Obsidian, gun raised “Who the hell are you? Answer, shithead”

The Obsidian sun, then to Sevro’s le finger He opens it wide Sevro shines a light inside “Gross” He steps back “Soue” And that’s not all they took What I first took for a receding hairline I see now is a half-co It makes the front of his head look indented, like the botto