Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

alley might break his fall and save his back and legs –

He hit the edge of the porch unprepared, a shock that sent him tumbling a

further few feet down the stairs backwards – a ridiculous lot of noise, his

battered mind was thinking through the pain, an embarrassing lot of noise…

And then the door was open above him, and he was lying sprawled on his back head

downwards on the narrow steps, looking up through his feet at Mradhon Vis, who

came with the metal flash of a dagger in his fist.

Hanse went for the belt knife, curled up and threw it with all he had: Mradhon

Vis staggered back with an oath, spun half about by the cast as Hanse twisted to

get up, his feet higher than his head with a railing on his left and a wall on

his right, which hindered more than helped. He got as far as his knee when the

bravo’s foot caught him under the jaw and hurled him back into the wall; and a

knife followed – further humiliation – up against his throat while Mradhon Vis

grabbed his hair and twisted. Hanse fought to get loose; he thought that he

struggled, but the messages were slow getting to his limbs, and the burning of

the amulet at his throat distracted him with the feeling that he was choking

or was it the knife?

‘Bring him up,’ a female voice said from the light of the doorway; and Hanse

looked blurrily up into it, while a hand twisted into his hair jerked him up and

the dagger shifted a keen point to his back under the ribs. He went up the

stairs, and followed the blackrobed figure which retreated inside. There seemed