Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

He had done it again! And this time all on his own and without aid. He had

breached the wall, eluded the guards, broken into the palace, and was in the

very privatemost chamber of the Prince-Governor himself!

Well, lord Prince, you wanted to see Shadowspawn – here he is, awaiting you!

Thus he thought while he freed his ankles of expensive silken line and removed

his gloves. At least this time no bedmate waited here for her youthful lord.

It was all Hanse could do to keep from laughing aloud in sheerest prideful

delight.

‘A nice-looking girl left this here for you, Hanse,’ Moonflower the Seer had

told him. ‘She got it from another – along with a coin for her trouble – who got

it from still another.’

Hanse raised his dark, dark brows and hooked a thumb in the shagreen belt he

wore over a screamingly red sash. From one side of the belt was slung a dagger.

An Ilbarsi knife, long as his whole arm, hung down his other leg.

‘This you … Saw, Passionflower?’

She smiled, a hugely fat and grossly misnamed woman who overflowed two cushions

atop a low stool. She saw him as a boyish boy and had ever let him turn her head

with his charm, which she was almost alone in seeing.

‘Oh no,’ Moonflower said almost archly, ‘I needed to go to no such trouble. I

know things, you know.’

‘Oh, I know you know things, you clever darling,’ he told that gross dumpling in

her several skirts, each of more than one unrepeated colour. ‘And this time

you’re going to let me know how you know, I know.’

She nodded at the wax-sealed walnut shell he was idly tossing in his left hand.