Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

into blue-grey shadows falling over the blue-black sea. ‘Everyone has his

hero, you know. A god is not enough for a whole man; he craves a fleshly

model. When he sent to me for a horse, and the god approved it, I was elated.

Now, perhaps, I can do more. The horse may not have died in vain, after all.’

‘I do not understand you. Priest.’

‘My Lord, do not make me too holy. I am Vashanka’s priest: I know many requiems

and oaths, and thirty-three ways to fire a warrior’s bier. They call me

Stepson, in the mercenaries’ guild. I would be pleased if you would call me

that, and let me talk to you at greater length about a future in which your

destiny and the wishes of the Storm God, our Lord, could come to be the same.’

‘I am not sure I can find room in my heart for such a god; it is difficult

enough to pretend to piety,’ grated Kadakithis, squinting after Tempus in the

dusk.

‘You will, you will,’ promised the priest, and dismounted from his horse to

approach Tempus’s ground-tied sorrel. Abarsis reached down, running his hand

along the beast’s white-stocking’d leg. ‘Look, Prince,’ he said, craning his

neck up to see Kadakithis’s face as his fingers tugged at the gold chain wedged

in the weight-cleat on the horse’s shoe. At the end of the chain, sandy but

shining gold, was an amulet. ‘The god wants him back.’

3

The mercenaries drifted into Sanctuary dusty from their westward trek or blue

lipped from their rough sea passage and wherever they went they made hellish

what before had been merely dissolute. The Maze was no longer safe for