Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

weakly against clouds like restless shadows blotting the sky.

The well-tended, scented gardens provided a pleasant if un-needed cover. A

gliding anthropomorphic shadow amid herbaceous shapes like looming shadows.

Hanse went right up to the house. It too was dark.

No one wants to visit Kurd. No one considers trying to steal from Kurd. Why

should it not be easy, then? Kurd must think he needs no precautions or

defenders!

Still, he kept his lips over his teeth when he smiled. He glided into the

fragrant shrubs, odd deciduous shrubs with long thin branchlets, set up close

against Kurd’s house, exulting in how simple it was, and then the bush’s

trailing tendrils moved, rustling, and turned, and twined, and clutched. And

clamped. And Shadowspawn understood then that Kurd was not without exterior

defences.

Even as he struggled – fruitlessly, against frutescence – he knew that the

knowledge was gained too late. Whether this thing was bent on strangling him or

twisting his limbs until they broke or merely holding him until someone came, it

was more horribly effective than human guards or three watchdogs. Amid silent

rustling horror Hanse tugged at the tendril more slender than a brooch-pin, and

only cut his fingers. His knife he only dulled, sawing at a purposeful tendril

that gave but refused to be cut. And they moved, twining, rustling, insinuating

themselves between his arms and body and around his legs and arms and torso and

-throat!

That one he fought until his fingers bled. It was relentless. Oye gods, no, no,