Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

‘Master Limner, you appear to be in good spirits today!’

Lalo, who had just turned from the Path of Money into the Avenue of Temples, on

his way to make an initial survey of the spaces he was to decorate in the new

temple to the Rankan gods, missed a step as the soft voice spoke in his ear. He

heard a dry chuckle, felt the hairs rise on his neck and bent to peer more

closely at the other man. All he could see beneath the hooded caravaneer’s cloak

was the gleam of crimson eyes.

‘Enas Yorl!’

‘More or less…’ his companion agreed. ‘And you? Are you the same? You have

been in my thoughts a great deal. Would you like me to change the gift I gave to

you?’

Lalo shivered, remembering those moments when he would have given his soul to

lose the power the sorcerer had bestowed upon him. But instead, his soul had

been given back to him.

‘No. I don’t think so,’ he answered quietly, and sensed the sorcerer’s surprise.

‘The debt is mine. Shall I paint you another picture to repay it?’ He added,

‘Shall I paint a portrait of you, Enas Yorl?’

The sorcerer halted then, and for a moment the painter met fully the red gaze of

those unearthly eyes, and he trembled at the immortal weariness he saw there.

Yet it was not Lalo, but Enas Yorl, who was the first to close his eyes and look

away.

THEN AZYUNA DANCED

by Lynn Abbey

1

He was a handsome man, somewhat less than middle-aged, with a physique that

bespoke a soldier, not a pnest. He entered the bazaar-stall of Kul the

Silkseller with an authority that sent the other patrons back into the dusty