Thieves World 2 – Tales From The Vulgar Unicorn by Asprin, Robert

the broker since we found out about Runo, so I began to follow them both. When

the broker caught on that he was being followed, he lit up this cul-de-sac – by

mistake, I’d guess – and the beggar followed him. I found the broker like this

and killed the beggar myself.’

Two more deaths for the curse. Walegrin stared at the bodies, then praised

Malm’s diligence and sent him back to the garrison barracks to prepare for

Illyra’s visit. He left the corpses in the cul-de-sac where they might never be

found. This pair he would not enter into the garrison roster.

Walegrin paced the length of the town, providing the inhibiting impression of a

garrison officer actually on duty, though if a murder had occurred at his feet

he would not have noticed. Twice he passed the entrance of the bazaar, twice

hesitated, and twice continued on his way. Sunset found him by the Promise of

Heaven as the priests withdrew into their temples and the Red Lanterns women

made their first promenade. By full darkness he was on the Wideway, hungry and

close in spirit to the fifteen-year-old who had swum the harbour and stowed away

in the hold of an outbound ship one horrible night many years ago.

In the moonless night that memory returned to him with palpable force. In the

grip of his depravities and obsessed by the imagined infidelity of his mistress,

his father had tortured and killed her. Walegrin could recall that much. After

the murder he had run from the barracks to the harbour. He knew the end of the

story from campfire tales after he’d joined the army himself. Unsatisfied with