9
SMUDGE
“She’s not coming back.” Anna’s voice was equal parts irritated and taunting.
It had been two nights since Chulla had vanished to look for her uncle in the camps. Pasha was content sitting around The Chisel and waiting for her, eating strange-but-not-awful-food they got in exchange for the triangle of light metal, stamped with a sun and crescent on one side and a man’s face and a few words they couldn’t read on the other. People seemed to value those triangles a lot. Chulla had advised them to keep the little sack she’d left with them hidden, and warned them that some people would kill for less. As it was, Anna was bewildered by the handful of copper balls and little metal disks she’d received in exchange for the triangle, along with two heaping bowls.
Now Chulla might not com
