Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

gone, Mradhon Vis crouching now in sole possession of that bloody threshold.

Hanse fingered his belt knife like a warding talisman; and wanted only to stay

put, but all the while the icy cold at the pit of his neck, more biting than the

cold of the mist, reminded him what he was there to do – what other power there

was to offend. And he waited, reckoning every small move Mradhon Vis made,

crouched over the bodies of the guards – every small shifting of a man busy at

corpse-looting, every glance about as some hardy passerby noised along the main

avenue – but none saw, none came near.

The woman delayed about her business inside: it might have been a moment, or far

longer – time did tricks in his mind. Hanse shifted uneasily, finally gathered

his nerve, slipped out of that safe concealment and, in the turning of Vis’s

head towards a distraction on the street… he eased past a gap in cover and

into the alley Vis and the woman had left, along the temple itself.

He reached the first of three barred windows, and with utmost silence took the

chance and seized the bars, hoisted himself up to see. The breath passed

silently over his teeth and his gut knotted up – a robber of wizards, Enas Yorl

had said: and now a thief who preyed on gods.

That struck hard … not that he darkened the doorway of his city gods with his

presence or practised alms; but there were territories, there were limits to a

thief’s audacity … or it went hard for all. It was his craft, by the gods, his

art the woman involved; and they were old, those gods, and belonged in