Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

almost struck his commander-in-chief. But he refrained, though he could not

utter even a civil goodbye. He went to his billet and he went into the town, and

he worked wrath out of himself, as best he could. The dregs he washed away with

drink, and after that he went to visit Myrtis, the whoremistress of Aphrodisia

House who knew how to soothe him. And she, seeing his heart breaking and his

fists shaking, asked him nothing about why he had come, after staying away so

long, but took him to her breast and healed what she might of his hurts,

remembering that all the protection he provided her and good he did for her, he

did because of a love spell she had bought and cast on him long since. and thus

she owed him at least one night to match his dreams.

6

Tempus had gone among his own kind, after he left the barracks. He had checked

in at the guild hostel north of the palace, once again in leopard and bronze and

iron, and he was welcome there.

Why he had kept himself from it for so long, he could not have reasoned, unless

it was that without these friends of former times the camaraderie would not have

been as sweet.

He went to the sideboard and got hot mulled wine from a krater, sprinkling in

goat’s cheese and grain, and took the posset to a corner, so the men could come

to him as they would.

The problem of the eunuch was still unsolved: finding a suitable replacement was

not going to be easy: there were not many eunuchs in the mercenaries’ guild. The

clubroom was red as dying day and dark as backlit mountains, and he felt better