Thieves World 4 – Storm Season by Asprin, Robert

joined him on his wood-framed cot in blessed shadow. Both sat then, silent, as

day filled up the room, stealing away their hiding place. Elbows on knees, Niko

thanked him for coming. Tempus suggested that under the circumstances a bier

could still be made, and funerary games would not be out of order. When he got

no response, the mercenary’s commander sighed rattlingly and allowed that he

himself would be honored to perform the rites. He knew how the Sacred Ban-ders

who had adopted the war name “Stepsons” revered him. He did not condone or

encourage it, but since they had given him their love and were probably doomed

to the man for it-even as their original leader, Stepson, called Abarsis, had

been doomed-Tempus felt responsible for them. His instructions and his curse had

sent the gelded warrior-priest Abarsis to his death, and such fighters as these

could not offer loyalty to a lesser man, to a pompous prince or an abstracted

cause. Sacred Bands were the mercenaries’ elite; this one’s history under the

Slaughter Priest’s command was nearly mythical; Abarsis had brought his men

to Tempus before committing suicide in a most honorable fashion, leaving

them as his parting gift-and as his way of ensuring that Tempus could not

just walk away from the god Vashanka’s service: Abarsis had been Vashanka’s

priest.

Of all the mercenaries Rankan money had enabled Tempus to gather for

Prince/Governor Kadakithis, this young recruit was the most singular. There was

something remarkable about the finely made slate-haired fighter with his quiet