Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

established that the very fabric of space had been troubled. Vibrations had not

quite damped out as yet, and were centred on the temple of Ils. You may, if you

wish a crude analogy, visualize a water surface and the waves, fading to ripples

and finally to naught, when a diver has passed through.’

Enas Yorl drank more in a gulp than was his wont. ‘Civilization was old in Ilsig

when Ranke was still a barbarian village,’ he said, as though to himself; his

gaze had drifted away again, towards darkness. ‘Its myths depicted the home of

the gods as being outside the world – not above, not below, but outside.

Philosophers of a later, more rationalistic era elaborated this into a theory of

parallel universes. My own researches – you will understand that my condition

has made me especially interested in the theory of dimensions, the subtler

aspects of geometry – my own researches have demonstrated the .possibility of

transference between these different spaces.

‘As another analogy, consider a pack of cards. One is inhabited by a king, one

by a knight, one by a deuce, et cetera. Ordinarily none of the figures can leave

the plane on which it exists. If, however, a very thin piece of absorbent

material soaked in a unique kind of solvent were laid between two cards, the

dyes that form them could pass through: retaining their configuration, I trust.

Actually, of course, this is a less than ideal comparison, for the transference

is accomplished through a particular contortion of the continuum -‘

Cappen could endure no more pedantry. He crashed his tankard down on the table