Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

trade that normally aged one rapidly. She came to the point at once: ‘Kalem

tells me you have twenty grimales of Caronne for sale.’

‘Prime and pure.’

That’s a rare amount.’ One-Thumb nodded. ‘Where, may I ask, did it come from?’

‘I’d rather not say.’

‘You’d better say. I had a twenty-grimale block in my bedroom safe. Yesterday it

was stolen.’

One-Thumb didn’t move or change expression. ‘That’s an interesting coincidence.’

She snorted. They sat without speaking while a pitcher of wine and four glasses

were slipped through the curtain.

‘Of course I’m not accusing you of theft,’ she said. ‘But you can understand why

I’m interested in the person you bought it from.’

‘In the first place, I didn’t buy it. In the second, it didn’t come from

Sanctuary.’

‘I can’t afford riddles, One-Thumb. Who was it?’

‘That has to remain secret. It involves a murder.’

‘You might be involved in another,’ she said tightly.

One-Thumb slowly reached down and brought out his dagger. The bodyguards tensed.

He smiled, and pushed it across the table to Amoli. ‘Go ahead, kill me. What

happens to you will be rather worse than going without krrf.’

‘Oh -‘ She knocked the knife back to him. ‘My temper is short nowadays. I’m

sorry. But the krrf’s not just for me; most of my women use it, and take part of

their pay in it, which is why I like to buy in large amounts.’ One-Thumb was

pouring the wine; he nodded. ‘Do you have any idea how much of my capital

was tied up in that block?’

He replaced the half-full glasses on the round serving tray and gave it a spin.