Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

behind the tent, Bauchle Meyne snatched up an abandoned bow, ignored the chaos,

and aimed a steel-tipped arrow into the sky. Wess sprinted towards him,

crashed into him, and shouldered him off-balance. The bowstring twanged and the

arrow fishtailed up, falling back spent to bury itself in the limp canvas.

Bauchle Meyne sprang up, his high complexion scarlet with fury.

‘You, you little bitch!’ He lunged for her, grabbed her, and backhanded her

across the face. ‘You’ve ruined me for spite!’

The blow knocked her to the ground. This time Bauchle Meyne did not laugh at

her. Half-blinded, Wess scrambled away from him. She heard his boots pound

closer and he kicked her in the same place in the ribs. She heard the bone

crack. She’dragged at her knife but its edge, roughened by the abuse she had

given it, hung up on the rim of the scabbard. She could barely see and barely

breathe. She struggled with the knife and Bauchle Meyne kicked her again.

‘You can’t get away this time, bitch!’ He let Wess get to her hands and knees.

‘Just try to run!’ He stepped towards her.

Wess flung herself at his legs, moved beyond pain by fury. He cried out as he

fell. The one thing he could never expect from her was attack. Wess lurched to

her feet. She ripped her knife from its scabbard as Bauchle Meyne lunged at her.

She plunged it into him, into his belly, up, into his heart.

She knew how to kill, but she had never killed a human being. She had been

drenched by her prey’s blood, but never the blood of her own species. She had