eyes couldn't see it. Kyral said in a breath of
a whisper, "They'll tear it down and burn it after we leave. We're
supposed to have contaminated it too greatly for any of the Silent Ones
ever to enter again. My family has traded with them for centuries, and
we're almost the only ones who have ever entered the city."

Then two of the Silent Ones of Canarsa, also covered with that coarse
shiny stuff, slithered into the hut, and Kyral choked off his words as
if he had swallowed them.

It was the strangest trading I had ever done. Kyral laid out the small
forged-steel tools and the coils of thin fine wire, and I unpacked my
lenses and laid them out in neat rows. The Silent Ones neither spoke nor
moved, but through a thin place in the gray veiling I saw a speck which
might have been a phosphorescent eye, moving back and forth as if
scanning the things laid out for their inspection.

Then I smothered a gasp, for suddenly blank spaces appeared in the rows
of merchandise. Certain small tools--wirecutters, calipers, surgical
scissors--had vanished, and all the coils of wire had disappeared.
Blanks equally had appeared in the rows of lenses; all of my tiny,
powerful microscope lenses had vanished. I cast a quick glance at Kyral,
but he seemed unsurprised. I recalled vague rumors of the Silent Ones,
and concluded that, eerie though it seemed, this was merely their way of
doing business.

Kyral pointed at one of the tools, at an exceptionally fine pair of
binocular lenses, at the last of the coils of wire. The shrouded ones
did not move, but the lenses and the wire vanished. The small tool
remained, and after a moment Kyral dropped his hand.

I took my cue from Kyral and remained motionless, awaiting whatever
surprise was coming. I had halfway expected what happened next. In the
blank spaces, little points of light began to glimmer, and after a
moment, blue and red and green gem-stones appeared there. To me the
substitution appeared roughly equitable and fair, though I am no judge
of the fine points of gems.

Kyral scowled slightly and pointed to one of the green gems, and after a
moment it whisked away and a blue one took its place. In another spot
where a fine set of surgical instruments had lain, Kyral pointed at the
blue gem which now lay there, shook his head and held out three fingers.
After a moment, a second blue stone lay winking beside the first.

Kyral did not move, but inexorably held out the three fingers. Ther