Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

solid stone buildings outlined in the moonlight.

It was a manor house of an estate long since abandoned. Illyra recognized it

from her dream, but her panic and terror had been sated in the headlong run from

the faceless corpse. An interior door hung open on rusty hinges that creaked

when she pushed the door. She was unsurprised to see an anvil sitting on a plain

wooden box in the centre of a courtyard that her instincts told her was not

entirely deserted.

‘I’m only prolonging it now. The anvil, and the rest; they are there for me.’

She stepped into the courtyard. Nothing happened. The anvil was solid and far

too heavy for her to lift.

‘You’ve come to collect your reward?’ a voice called.

‘Lythande?’ she whispered, waiting for the cadaverous magician to appear.

‘Lythande is elsewhere.’

A hooded man stepped into the moonlight.

‘What has happened? Where is Marilla? Her family?’

The man gestured to his right. Illyra followed his movement and saw the

tumbledown headstones of an old graveyard.

‘But…?’

‘The priests of Ils seek to provoke the new gods. They created the homunculus,

disguising it to appear as a young woman to an untrained observer. Had it been

interred in the foundation of the new temple, it would have created a disruptive

weakness. The anger of Savankala and Sabellia would reach across the desert.

That is, of course, exactly what the priests of Ils wanted.

‘We magicians – and even you gifted S’danzo – do not welcome the meddling feuds

of gods and their priests. They tamper with the delicate balances of fate. Our