Thieves World 4 – Storm Season by Asprin, Robert

it was. Not the honey-wagon, thank the gods, but the cart into which they had

collected the garbage from several days’ worth of princely meals. Gagging, Lalo

wriggled deeper into the mass of turnip peelings and sour curds, soggy rice and

pastry crusts and meat trimmings and bones.

He thought grimly, As long as I can retch, I’m stil] alive…

The cart moved beneath him and he heard the stamp of a hoof on stone. He

realized then that not only was he alive, he might even escape, for if the horse

was hitched, it must be time for the garbage to be taken away. He waited,

breathing shallowly, for the endless minutes until he heard voices and the wagon

lurched with the weight of somebody climbing onto the driver’s bench. Then they

began to move.

Faster… Faster! Lalo prayed as he was jounced deeper into the reeking mass.

The clatter of wooden wheels on stone was deafening, then there was a pause, a

moment’s conversation with Honald at the Gate, and the duller vibration as the

wagon trundled across the pounded earth of Vashanka’s Square.

Then the cart shuddered to a halt. Lalo strained his ears for the night-noises

of Sanctuary, but heard instead shouting and the clamor of an alarm.

“Is that smoke? Theba’s paps, it’s the Palace! Leave the wagon, Tarn, we can

give the beasts their slops in the morning!” The wagon heaved again and Lalo

heard two sets of footsteps pounding back the way they had come.

He settled back down, realizing with wonder that for the moment at least, he was

saved.

And what will I do now? Zanderei would tell everyone that Lalo had killed the