Thieves World 01 – Thieves World by Asprin, Robert

has the most devotees of any.’

Danlis ignored his jape. ‘Ranke was quite a different country, under quite

different gods,’ she continued. ‘Chief of these are Savankala the Thunderer, his

consort Sabellia, Lady of Stars, their son Vashanka the Ten-Slayer, and his

sister and consort Azyuna – gods of storm and war. According to Venafer, it was

they who made Ranke supreme at last. Mattathan is more prosaic and opines that

the martial spirit they inculcated was responsible for the Rankan Empire finally

taking Ilsig into itself.’

‘Yes, milady, yes, I’ve heard this,’ Jamie said, while Cappen reflected that if

his beloved had a fault, it was her tendency to lecture.

‘Sanctuary has changed from of yore,’ she proceeded. Tt has become polyglot,

turbulent, corrupt, a canker on the body politic. Among its most vicious

elements are the proliferating alien cults, not to speak of necromancers,

witches, charlatans, and similar predators on the people. The time is overpast

to restore law here. Nothing less than the Imperium can do that. A necessary

preliminary is the establishment of the Imperial deities, the gods of Ranke, for

everyone to see: symbol, rallying point, and actual presence.’

‘But they have their temples,’ Jamie argued.

‘Small, dingy, to accommodate Rankans, few of whom stay in the city for long,’

Danlis retorted. ‘What reverence does that inspire, for the pantheon and the

state? No, the Emperor has decided that Savankala and Sabellia must have the

greatest fane, the most richly endowed, in this entire province. Molin