Thieves World 4 – Storm Season by Asprin, Robert

to choose his models from those among the poor who were still uncorrupted.

“My lord, that one was done from imagination,” he said truthfully, for the Ilsig

King had been inspired by his memories of fleeing through the Maze just ahead of

local bullies when he was a boy. He did not tell them that he had got the Hell

Hound Quag to boast of his feats on campaign while he posed for the figure of

the Rankan Emperor.

One of the eunuch pages scurried towards them and Coricidius bent to hear his

message. Released from his gaze, Lalo stepped backward with a sigh.

“You are too sensitive, Master Limner,” Zan-derei said softly. “You must learn

to accept what each day brings. In these times, ideals are an expensive luxury.”

“Do you want a portrait too?” Lalo asked bitterly.

“Oh, I would not be worth the trouble-” Zan-derei smiled. “Besides, I know how I

appear to the world.”

Cymbals crashed, and as Lalo’s startled pulse began to slow he realized that the

other end of the room was flaring with the colored silks of the dancing girls.

He should have expected it, having watched them rehearse almost every afternoon

while he worked on the paintings here.

Such a commotion, he thought, for a few strangers who will make notes on

Sanctuary as most artists make portraits-recording only the surface of reality

and then will be gone.

Happily abandoning their conversations, the Commissioners let the purple-clad

pages usher them to couches below the dais on which the Prince was already

enthroned. The dancers, chosen from among the more talented of Kadakithis’