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Caul indicated the door "The library awaits"

Bentham removed his hat "Extraordinary," he said, hushed and reverent "It al souls here are co," said Euards pushed us toward the door We ducked through the low opening and into another cavelike roo by hand froed and bare, empty but for some scattered straw and broken shards of pottery Itsmany dozens of se enough to hold a bottle or a candle At the back of the room, several doors forked away into darkness

"Well, boy?" said Caul "Can you see any?"

I looked around "Any what?"

"Don’t trifle with me Soul jars" He stepped to a wall and swept his hand inside one of the coves "Go and pick one up"

I turned slowly, scanning the walls Every cove appeared to be e," I said "Maybe there aren’t any"

"You’re lying"

Caul nodded to uard punched rine shouted as I fell todown at h my shirt--not from the punch, but frorine "He’s just a boy!"

"Just a boy, just a boy!" Caul said ot to punish them like ins to spring up, the plant to grow" He strode towardthe barrel of his odd, antique pistol "Straighten his leg I want a clean shot at the knee"

The guard shoved round into the dirt, un’s haed Caul forin one the coves in the wall A shape I hadn’t noticed before--

"Wait!" I shouted "I see souard flippedover ain, blinking Forced myself to be calradually into view like a Polaroid photo, was the faint i, cylindrical in shape with a tapered neck and a cork plugging its top, its stone the sae hills of Abaton

"It’s a jar," I said "Just one It was tipped over, that’s why I didn’t notice it at first"

"Stand," Caul said "I want to see you pick it up"

I drew my knees tothrough my midsection I shuffled across the rooers around the jar, then got a shock and pulled ," I replied "I wasn’t expecting it"

"Fascinating,"near the door, as if reconsidering this whole endeavor, but now he took a step closer

I reached into the cove again, ready for the cold this tirine said "There’s a peculiar soul in there, and it should be treated with respect"