Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

his remaining advantage, relaxed his hands and let them fall, wondering wildly

all the while whether his only chance might be in some wild try at escape. The

woman in the edge of his vision stepped back, brushed at her robes, adjusted her

hood. The knife rode razor-edged at his throat and the hand which held his chin

gave him nothing.

Mradhon Vis kept his grip and held the ruffian just off his balance, looked in a

moment’s distraction at the lady in question … at a severe and dusky face in

the faint light of the alleyway. She was beautiful. His romantical soul was

touched – that seldom-afforded self which launched itself mostly in the wake of

more profitable motives. ‘Be off,’ he told Sjekso, and flung the villain a

good several body lengths down the alley; and Sjekso scrambled up and set

to his heels without stopping to see anything.

‘Wait!’ the woman called after Sjekso. The would-be rapist spun about with his

back to a wall, ducking an imagined blow from behind. Mradhon Vis, dagger still

in hand, stood facing him, utterly confounded.

‘The boy and I are old friends,’ she said – and to Sjekso: ‘Isn’t it so?’

Sjekso straightened with his back against the wall and managed a bow, if a

wobbling one … managed a sneer, his braggadocio recovered in the face of a man

he, after all, knew from the dice table that night – and Mradhon Vis took a

tighter and furious grip on his dagger, knowing this vermin at least from the

tables at the Unicorn.

But feminine fingers touched very lightly on his bare arm. ‘A misunderstanding,’