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Ang just looked at him.
Spadrin spat an iesta pod. "Listen, dirteater, you called this a partnership. I want my share of everything, and that means all you know. You can tell me now, or you can tell me the hard way."
He flexed his hands.
"Ang," I muttered, "if you tell him that, you've got nothing--"
Ang only shrugged, moving away from me. He said, to Spadrin, "It's a few days' travel southeast from here to the place where I found the solii. I don't know how far we'll have to go from there to find the formation.
Any co-ords I could give you would be meaningless, anyway. Normal readings are useless. I navigate by landmark and experience. . . . Sometimes even that doesn't work. Things change out here, you understand? Every time I go out, I see things twisted around. You've got to know World's End, or you won't survive. I'm the only one who can find what we want. And I'm the only one who can get us out again. Don't ever forget it." He
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searched our faces, to be sure we believed him. Spadrin spat out another pod, but he nodded.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Why didn't you follow up on this before, when you first found the solii?"
He laughed once; the sound was more like a curse.
"Because if I'd reported it, all the profits would belong to the Company. So I quit. Even splitting what we find with them and you, I'll be rich. This is my reward. No one can take it away from me. No one." The hand that held the solii made a fist. He asked me, "Are you finished yet?"
I shook my head. "Soon. But we'd better have easier terrain from here on, or I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this wreck moving."
He glared at me. "We'll make it." He turned away.
"Ang?" I called, and he looked back. "How close will we come to Fire Lake?"
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WORLD S END
He shrugged. "Too close for comfort. The closer you get to Fire Lake, the crazier everything gets."
"How likely are we to meet anyone else out here?"