Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

dull -‘ She stopped, surprised at herself for her hesitation and her fear. ‘You

come with me, Lythande,’ she said abruptly. ‘You come home with me.’

Lythande stared at her, her expression unreadable. ‘Did you mean what you said ‘

‘It’s so beautiful, Lythande. And peaceful. You’ve met half my family already.

You’d like the rest of them, too! You said you had things to leam from us.’

‘- about loving me?’

Wess caught her breath. She leaned forward and kissed Lythande quickly, then, a

second time, slowly, as she had wanted to since the moment she saw her.

She drew back a little.

‘Yes,’she said.’Sanctuary made me lie, but I’m not in Sanctuary now. With any

luck I’ll never see it again, and never have to lie anymore.’

‘If I had to go-‘

Wess grinned. ‘I might try to persuade you to stay.’ She touched Lythande’s

hair. ‘But I wouldn’t try to hold you. As long as you wanted to stay, and

whenever you wanted to come back, you’d have a place in Kaimas.’

‘It isn’t your resolve I doubt, little sister, it’s my own. And my own strength.

I think I would not want to leave your home, once I’d been there for a while.’

‘I can’t see the future,’ Wess said. Then she laughed at herself, for what she

was saying to a wizard. “Perhaps you can.’

Lythande made no reply.

‘All I know,’ Wess said, ‘is that anything anyone does might cause pain. To

oneself, to a friend. But you cannot do nothing.’ She stood up. ‘Come. Come

sleep, with me and my friends. And then we’ll go home.’

Lythande stood up too. ‘There’s so much you don’t know about me, little sister.