Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

voice was now mellow and rich, and his hands, although very slender, possessed

the ordinary number of joints. However, the redness still glowed.

‘If one sentence is upon Commander Nizharu,’ Jarveena said firmly, ‘may it be

executed soon.’

‘That could be arranged.’ A sardonic inflection coloured the words. ‘At a

price.’

‘The scroll doesn’t refer to him? I imagined -‘

‘You imagined it spelt his doom, and that was why he was so anxious about its

loss? In a way that’s correct. In a way … And I can make certain that that

shall be the outcome. At a price.’

‘What – price?’ Her voice quavered against her will.

He rose slowly from his chair, shaking his cloak out to its fullest; it swept

the floor with a faint rustling sound.

‘Need you ask, of one who so plainly is obsessed by lust for women? That was the

reason for my downfall. I explained.’

Ice seemed to form around her heart. Her mouth was desert on the instant.

‘Oh, why be so timid?’ purred Enas, Yorl, taking her hand in his. ‘You’ve

endured many worse bedfellows. I promise.’

It was true enough that the only means she had found to cross , the weary

leagues between Forgotten Holt and Sanctuary had been | to yield her body: to

merchants, mercenaries, grooms, guards-‘ men …

‘Tell me first,’ she said with a final flare of spirit, ‘whose deaths are cited

in the document.’

‘Fair,’ said the wizard. ‘Know, then, that one is an unnamed man, who is to be

falsely convicted of the murder of another. And that other is the new governor,

the prince.’ Thereupon the light faded, and he embraced her unresisting.