Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

Hanse moved off, slipping casually down the street amid the ordinary traffic

with a skill Cappen found amazing … he had never seen Hanse work, not after

this fashion; had never particularly wanted to think at depth on the essence of

the smallish thief, that there was in fact something more than the temper and

the knives and the vanity which made this man dangerous. Having seen it, he

reckoned to himself that the only sensible course for him now was to go back

into the Unicorn, work his way into whatever game might start – his current hope

of prosperity – and forget Hanse entirely, never minding a moment when Hanse

turned up as stiff and cold as Sjekso had, which was assuredly where he was

headed at the moment. But perhaps it was the poetry of the matter, the suspicion

that there might be something worth the witnessing … perhaps it was the

assurance that Hanse was into far more than he knew, and that somewhere up

there, without untidy recourse to the rapier that swung at his side … he might

overtake the revenge-bound lunatic and talk him out of it. Hanse-was the only

likely ally in a situation of his own; the woman had looked at him back there,

and there was nagging at him an unwelcome vision, Hanse lying at the doorstep in

the morning and himself there the day after – macabre fancy it might be, but the

wind still blew up his back. There was only the matter of catching Hanse to stop

him, and that was like putting one’s hands on a shadow. Cappen was not

accustomed to feel awkward in his moves, looked down on the louts and ne’er-do