Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

She laughed and beamed and tousled his hair for he knew that such talk pleased

her. Then he told her the story. Handed her, disguised in carefully smudged

russet, a strip of silken cloth: two straps and two cupped circles bearing many

thread-holes.

‘Ah! You’ve been visiting a lady in the Path of Money! Nice of you to let

Moonflower have four of the pearls you’ve laboriously sliced off this little

sheath!’

‘She gave it me for services rendered.’ He waved a hand.

‘Oh, of course. Hmm.’ She folded it, unfolded it, fondled it, drew it through

her dimple-backed hands, sniffed and tasted it with a dainty tongue-tip. A gross

kitten at her divining. She closed her eyes and was very still. As Hanse was,

waiting.

‘She is indeed a c- what you said,’ she told him, able to be discreet even

though in something approaching a trance. ‘Oh, Shadowspawn! You are involved in

a plot beyond your dreaming. Odd – this must be the Emperor I see, watching from

afar. And this big man with your – acquaintance. A big man with a big beard. In

a uniform? I think so. Close to our ruler, both. Yet … ahh … they are his

enemies. Yes. They plot. She is a serpent and he a lion of no little craft. They

seek … ah, I see. The Prince-Governor has become faceless. Yes. They seek to

cost him face.’ Her eyes opened to stare wide at him, two big garnets set amid a

heavy layer of kohl. ‘And you, Hanse my sweet, are their tool.’

They stared at each other for a moment. ‘Best you vanish for a time,

Shadowspawn. You know what becomes of tools once they are no longer needed.’