Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

‘And quite handsome, really. Far unlike what I’ve heard.’

‘So? Then you can look at me? I see that you can. And not many do.’

‘I have business,’ she declared, liking all of this less and less. She was not

accustomed to feel fear … hunted the sensation in the alleys of cities in the

hope of discovering a measure of life. But this was far from comfortable. ‘I

have to be aboutit.’

‘What, some new employer?*

‘Not killing wizards, if that’s your worry. My business is private, and it need

not intrude on yours.’

‘And if I engaged you?’

‘In what regard?’

‘To spend one night with me.’

‘You’re mad.’

‘I might become so – I don’t age, you see. And that’s the difficulty.’

‘You’re not afraid? You’re looking to die? Is that the cause of all this?’

‘Ah, I’m afraid at times. At times like this, when the shape is good. But it

doesn’t last. There are other times… and they come. And I never grow old,

Ischade. I can’t detect it if I do. And that frightens me.’

She regarded him askance … he was handsome, very. She wondered if this had

been his first shape, when he was young, that brought his trouble on him. It was

a shape fine enough to have done that. The eyes were beautiful, full of pain. So

many of her young men of the streets were full of that pain. It touched her as

nothing else could.

‘How long has it been,’ he asked, setting his hands on her shoulders, touching

ever so gently, ‘since you had a lover worth the name? And how long since I’ve

had hope of anything? We might be each other’s answer, Ischade. If I should die,