Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

So much of it could hurt you.’

Wess closed her eyes, wishing, like a child at twilight seeking out a star. She

opened her eyes again.

Lythande smiled. ‘I will come with you. If only for a while.’

They walked together, hand in hand, to join the others.

ISCHADE

C. J. Cherryh

1

Shadows slipped along the cobbles in this deepest sink of the Maze, in that

small light of the moon which wended its way among the overhangs and glistened

wetly off noisome moistures. A well-dressed woman had no place here, even

shadow-clad in black, robed and hooded – but she went deliberately, weaving only

from the course of the foulest and widest streams, stepping over most.

And a ruffler, a bravo, a sometime thief- Sjekso by name-he took to the alleys

as a matter of course.

Sjekso belonged here, had been whelped here, wove in his steps too, but not from

fastidiousness, as he came from the opposite direction down the web of dark

ways. A handsome fellow was Sjekso Kinzan, a blond youth with curling locks, a

short and carefully kept beard, his shirt and jerkin open from the recent heat

of the common room of the Vulgar Unicorn – from the heat, and, truth be told,

from a certain vanity. He radiated sex, wine vapours, and a certain peevishness:

was out of pocket from the dice, had lost even Minsy’s purchasable favours to a

bad throw … his absolute nadir of discomfort. Minsy was off with that whoreson

Hanse, while he-

He staggered his hazed way back towards his lodgings and his own doorway off the

Serpentine. He snuffed and faltered and lamented his misfortune with himself. He