No one else saw through Shade's little scheme—at least Theresa did not. After setting down the bowl of soup in her hand, she picked up two gold rings and handed them to Shade:
"Shade, try exchanging these for an iron shovel. Let's test the rules here."
Shade changed the subject as well:
"Theresa, Sister Belen, have you tried wishing to learn how many burial objects are inside a particular grave? For example—asking which grave has three or more burial objects?"
"We tried, but it was meaningless. The box will answer that question, but if you want to obtain several burial objects, you have to offer the same number in return. It amounts to accomplishing nothing."
Shade stood and opened the wooden chest at the foot of the bed, but everything inside appeared normal. He tossed the rings in, shut the chest again, placed his hand on the lid, and spoke as Theresa had instructed:
"I want a Gravedigger's iron shovel."
When he opened it again three seconds later, the two gold rings had indeed vanished, replaced by a very old iron shovel.
Shade took it out and placed it beside the shovel propped behind the door.
Two burial objects for one shovel meant that, to steadily increase their number of burial objects, they had to obtain at least three at a time. And the graves with more burial objects were correspondingly more dangerous.
Back when there had been only two of them, they could not possibly split up. Added to that, the intervals of rest after each outing and return were extremely long, so Theresa and the nun had not progressed very quickly. But the fact that they had now accumulated six burial objects and two shovels was enough to infer just how long they had survived here.
Fortunately, at