Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

Wess started to protest, but Lythande waved her to silence.

‘Now I understand how you eluded me in the streets.’

‘I’m a hunter,’ Wess said irritably. ‘What good would a hunter be, who couldn’t

move silently and fast?’

‘No, it was more than that. I put a mark on you, and you threw it off. No one

has ever done that before.’

‘I didn’t do it, either.’

‘Let us not argue, frejojan. There isn’t time.’

She inspected the cut, then dipped her hand into the side of the sphere, brought

out a handful of water, and washed away the sticky drying blood. Her touch was

warm and soothing, as expert as Quartz’s.

‘Why did you bring me here?’

‘So we could talk unobserved.’

‘What about?’

‘I want to ask you something first. Why did you think I was a woman?’

Wess frowned and gazed into the depths of the floor. Her boot dimpled the

surface, like the foot of a water-strider.

‘Because you are a woman,’ she said. ‘Why you pretend you are not, I don’t

know.’

‘That is not the question,’ Lythande said. ‘The question is why you called me

“sister” the moment you saw me. No one, sorcerer. or otherwise, has ever glanced

at me once and known me for what I am. You could place me, and yourself, in

great danger. How did you know?’

‘I just knew,’ Wess said. ‘It was obvious. I didn’t look at you and wonder if

you were a man or a woman. I saw you, and I thought, how beautiful, how elegant

she is. She looks wise. She looks like she could help us. So I called to you.’

‘And what did your friends think?’

‘They … I don’t know what Quartz and Aerie thought. Chan asked whatever was I