Sanctuary, as the Rankan emperor’s new lot never would. And the woman, the
foreigner, the witch-thief, climbed up to the lap of bearded Ils himself and
lifted the fabled necklace of Harmony from about the marble neck.
‘Shalpa,’ Hanse swore silently, and with chilling appropriate-ness – let himself
ever so carefully down from his vantage with one chill throbbing about his neck
and another one travelling his backbone. So Enas Yorl wanted a report. And the
gods of old Ilsig were plundered by a foreign witch while the Rankans moved in
with their new lot of deities down the block, with scaffolds and plans and the
evident intent of overshadowing the gods of Ilsig. Prince Kithakadis and the
Rankan gods; and: ‘recommended’, Enas Yorl had said, sending a thief out to keep
watch on this god-thievery.
Hanse flattened himself back into his concealment with a sense of a world amiss,
of matters under way no mere thief wanted part of. He had mixed in Kitty-Rat’s
connivances once to his discomfort … but now, now it was possible Enas Yorl
had a side of his own.
And hired help.
A footstep towards the temple front warned him: he crouched low and held his
breath – Ischade, rejoining Mradhon Vis. ‘Done,’ he heard her say; and ‘here’s
an end. Let’s be gone, and quickly.’
Of course an outsider like Mradhon Vis – of course a man not Ilsig, who would
have no scruples in killing Ilsig priests or robbing Ilsig gods.
In the Emperor’s hire? Hanse wondered, which was far too much and too clear
wondering for a thief; the sweat was coursing down his ribs despite the misty
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