Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

All at once Illyra strangled a shriek. He whirled about and saw how the blood

had left her olive countenance, turning it grey. She hugged herself and

shuddered.

‘What’s wrong?’ he blurted in fresh terror.

She did not look at him. ‘Go away,’ she said in a thin voice. ‘Forget you ever

knew that woman.’

‘But – but what -‘

‘Go away, I told you! Leave me alone!’

Then somehow she relented enough to let forth: ‘I don’t know. I dare not know.

I’m just a little half-breed girl who has a few cantrips and a tricksy second

sight, and – and I saw that this business goes outside of space and time, and a

power beyond any magic is there – Enas Yorl could tell more, but he himself -‘

Her courage broke. ‘Go away!’ she screamed. ‘Before I shout for Dubro and his

hammer!’

‘I beg your pardon,’ Cappen Varra said, and made haste to obey.

He retreated into the twisting streets of the Maze. They were narrow; most of

the mean buildings around him were high; gloom already filled the quarter. It

was as if he had stumbled into the same night where Danlis had gone … Danlis,

creature of sun and horizons… If she lived, did she remember their last time

together as he remembered it, a dream dreamed centuries ago?

Having the day free, she had wanted to explore the countryside north of town.

Cappen had objected on three counts. The first he did not mention; that it would

require a good deal of effort, and he would get dusty and sweaty and saddle

sore. She despised men who were not at least as vigorous as she was, unless they

compensated by being venerable and learned.