“And that we’re a disgrace to smugglers everywhere for coming back with an entire cargo hold of black pixie dust with no coin to show for it,” Cha agreed, slamming her fist on the table.
“That’s right!”Dy pumped her fist in the air.“No other team has taken so much risk for so little return.We are the biggest laughingstock of the criminal world and that’s nothing to sneer at.”
Cha bumped fists with Dy, sharing in the triumph.
Phin looked between them.“Sometimes I really worry about you two.”
“The best part of this plan,” Cha said, ignoring Phinny, “is that we’ll look even more like idiots.We’ll go into Obsidian, give up a platinum coin to buy all the black dust we can, then take it deeper into the fae realms, where it will lose value exponentially with every border we cross, with the plan to just leave it there and come back empty handed.”
“They will write epic poems to our idiocy,” Dy hooted with enthusiasm.
Phinny just shook her head, looking pained.“Please don’t wake Inigo.I just got him down.”
“Sorry,” Dy said in a much lower voice.None of them wanted to wake the toddler.
“Can’t you at least try to bring back some yellow dust?”Phin asked plaintively.“Otto’s down payment covered a lot, but we could use some financial cushion, especially since you quit your day job for the last disastrous gig, and with that shitty rep you two are having so much fun joking about, you won’t be getting any smuggling jobs anytime soon.”
Dy sobered, looking thoughtful.“Not easy to transport yellow dust.”
“That shit is unstable as the human government,” Cha replied.
“But valuable.Very expensive,” Phin put in.“You wouldn’t have to fill Big Betty.A crate or two would bring in some very nice coin.”
“Could you move it?”Cha asked her.
Phin looked indignant.“I might be Mama Bear now, but I haven’t forgotten everything I knew.Fiery Wench might be retired as a handle, but I’ll wager I’m still far better a fencer than you two are smugglers.”
“I’m sure you are,” Dy told her with obvious affection.Dy had fallen in love with Phinny when she was Fiery Wench, their fan girl and the best fence in the business.
“We’d have to have some way to disguise the yellow dust,” Cha mused.“The Citrine border agents won’t want us to get across with the stuff.”
“The Moonstone agents will want to confiscate it,” Dy said.
“And same on the Moonstone/Obsidian border,” Cha replied.
“Then again crossing from Obsidian back into the human realms.”
“So, even if we can get ahold of yellow dust—”
“Which the Citrine fae won’t want to sell to us.They’re more likely to squash us like the bugs they think we are.”
“We’ll still have three border crossings and five inspections to navigate.”
“I suppose we could set aside some vials of yellow dust to use as bribes for the last four inspections.”
“We still have to figure out how to find, purchase—”
“Or steal,” Cha corrected her.
“Or steal the yellow dust,” Dy acknowledged.“Then we have to disguise it somehow.”
“Maybe Nerd Girl will have ideas,” Cha suggested.
“Good thinking.”
Phin had been watching the exchange like a spectator at a sporting event.“I’m confused—won’t Prince Charming be helpful?He’s Amethyst fae.He should be able to out-magic all of these issues.”
Dy gave Cha a sympathetic look.She understood.