Thieves World #3
Shadow Of Sanctuary
Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION Robert Asprin
LOOKING FOR SATAN Vonda N. Mclntyre
ISCHADE C.J.Cherryh
A GIFT IN PARTING Robert Asprin
THE VIVISECTIONIST Andrew Offutt
THE RHINOCEROS AND THE UNICORN Diana L. Paxson
THEN AZYUNA DANCED Lynn Abbey
A MAN AND HIS GOD Janet Morris
ESSAY: THINGS THE EDITOR NEVER TOLD ME Lynn Abbey
INTRODUCTION
by Robert Asprin
It was a slow night at the Vulgar Unicorn. Not slow in the sense that there had
been no fights (there hadn’t) or that there weren’t many customers (there
weren’t) but rather a different kind of slow; the slow measured pace of a man on
his way to the gallows, for the Unicorn was dying, as was the entire town of
Sanctuary. More people were leaving every day and those left were becoming
increasingly desperate and vicious as the economy dipped to new lows.
Desperate people were dangerous; they were quick to turn predator at the
smallest imagined opportunity, which in turn made them vulnerable to the real
predators drawn to the town like wolves to a sick animal. Anyone with an ounce
of sense and a good leg to hobble on would have deserted Sanctuary long ago.
Such were the thoughts of Hakiem, the Storyteller, as he sat brooding over a cup
of cheap wine. Tonight he did not even bother adopting his usual guise of dozing
drunkenly while eavesdropping on conversations at the neighbouring tables. He
knew all the patrons present and not one of them was worth spying on – hence no
need to fake disinterest.
He would leave Sanctuary tomorrow. He would go somewhere, anywhere, where people