Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

the crowd. Hanse pulled him instead to another door, out into the back alley

where few had gone and those already vanished. ‘Now,’ Hanse said, taking the

blind man by the arm and backing him against the wall. ‘Who?’

‘EnasYorl.’

He dropped his hand from the blind man’s arm. ‘Him. For what?’

‘He wants to talk to you. You come – recommended. And you’ll be paid.’

Hanse took in his breath and fingered his coin, looked down at it a space, found

it new minted and heavy silver, and reckoned uneasily in what quarters he was

recommended. Coin of that denomination was not so easily come by … but Enas

Yorl – the wizard took few visitors … and there were things lately amiss in

Sanctuary. Things larger than Hanse Shadowspawn. Rumours filtered down into the

Maze.

Sjekso dead, unmarked, and Enas Yorl – offering money to talk to a thief: the

world was mad. He walked it for the narrow lane it was.

‘All right,’ he said, because Yorl had a long reach and because ignorance scared

him. ‘You show me.’

The blind man took his hand, and they went, down the alley and out again. It was

so unfaltering a progress, so lacking a blind man’s moves, that Hanse inevitably

suspected some sham, such as beggars used – an actor and a good one, he thought,

appreciating art.

Mradhon Vis fretted, paced below the balcony at the wooden stairs he had found

last night. It was a place as sordid as any in the Maze, unpainted boards and

age-slimed stone, a place atilt towards the alley and propped on boards and

braces. It breathed decrepitude.