A breather in Refugium

Father Ling is happy to support the group while they recuperate, setting them up in Sue Snell's hotel. As soon as Mal feels fit, he starts to sell the group's loot to Chaucer and Jaxxon Tomorrow, a stranded merchant in the village. The scorpion worshipers carried some fine gear: A Steyr AUG goes to Zed Memphis, while Dan Hawking keeps a scoped hunting carbine - "two rifles are better than one", he says. Rod insists on keeping the M79 grenade launcher because "it underlines his natural authority", even if he has no ammo for it. Nor knows how to use it. Secretly, he thinks that the fat barrel of the weapon makes him look like a mean hombre, and that's the image he wants to project after all he's gone through. That still leaves some guns and knives, some ruined sets of armor and some gear. With skill and patience, and always only hinting at the great service the group did to Refugium when they took down the raiders in Bakersfield, Mal is able to turn the loot into ammo and useful gear. He also picks up some low-priced grenades from Chaucer, who seems to be glad to be rid of those things.

Rod spends much of the time with Lla Viper. The girl had promised him some lessons in the fine art of preparing poisons, and she keeps her word. For hours, the two are crouched over pots and pans, "bottling death", as Lla says. Rod watches and learns - it is not quite what they teach in the Institute, but only a fool would disregard Lla's skill. In the evenings, the villagers see him out in the fields, training the fast-draw trick that makes Zed and Mal such dangerous persons.

Zed spends idle days on a bed in the hotel, endlessly disassembling and cleaning his guns, sharpening his knives, waiting for his leg to heal. Dan just watches, and waits.

Meanwhile, life in Refugium goes on: Once or twice, a trader arrives, spends a night, and returns to the routes in the West. The farmers work the fields, while the monks follow their inscrutable routine in the old correctional facility. One day, after a few weeks passed in this happy fashion, Rod thinks that Zed's leg is whole again. The plaster came off a week ago, and the man from Memphis is yearning for action. A comparably large caravan under master trader Balthasar Cut is in town, making its biannual run to Refugium, supplying it with fuel and ammo. The bustle might be useful for all kinds of things, but Rod and Mal have something different in mind. In the evening, they walk up to the correctional facility, its wall covered in the names of travelers, and ask Chaucer for another audience with the master of Refugium. It is time to lay the cards on the table.