Chapter ONE - Weebly

paid him the night before.
He knew, though, that he could not have refused
Abner Berson’s offer. “Do you have to work every job
that calls for a conjurer?” Kannice had asked him. And
the truth was that he did. There was no one else. He
had tried to explain as much to Kannice that morning,
but they had been at odds over the riots and both of
them had been angry. Ethan owed it to her to explain
again.
Tonight, though, he couldn’t bring himself to face
that conversation or her inevitable questions about his
injuries. In the end, Ethan chose to walk home. He had
some cheese and bread there, and even a small flask of
Madeira that Diver had gotten for him—Ethan knew
better than to ask where. He didn’t have a lot of any of
it, but there was enough to make a meal. And then he
could sleep.
As he walked through the lanes he tried to
concentrate on what he had learned thus far about
Jennifer Berson and the final hours of her life. A good
deal of it struck him as odd. He sensed, though, that he
had heard much of importance in his encounters with