Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

without; within you are beautiful.’

‘Me?’ said Jarveena with genuine astonishment. ‘As well call a toad beautiful,

or a mud wall!’

‘As you like,’ Enas Yorl answered with a shrug. The movement revealed that he

was no longer quite what he had been earlier. ‘At all events, there is a second

reason.’

‘What?’

‘You read the writing on the scroll, and previously I had described it to you.

Nonetheless you’re acting as though you have forgotten something.’

For a brief moment she failed to take his point. Then her hand flew to her open

mouth.

‘Two deaths,’ she whispered.

‘Yes, indeed. And I scarcely need to tell you to whom a traitor in the imperial

court would apply for a spell powerful enough to drag me into the matter willy

nilly. I could make the paper legible. I could not evade the consequences of

undoing a colleague’s work.’

‘Whose death? Mine?

‘It would be politic to minimize the danger, as for instance by taking

employment with a seafarer. Many merchant-captains would be glad of a skilful

clerk, and after your apprenticeship with Melilot you’re well equipped for such

a post. Moreover, your present master is inclined to jealousy. You are half his

age, yet already he regards you as a rival.’

‘He dissembles well,’ muttered Jarveena, ‘but now and then he’s acted in a

fashion that makes me believe you.’

‘He might regard you more kindly were you to become a sort of foreign agent for

him. I’m sure you could contrive – for a reasonable .fee – to supply him with

commercially valuable information. He would scarcely object to adding other