Thieves World 5 – The Face of Chaos by Asprin, Robert

into the candlelight. Her right arm was hopelessly twisted in the silk and her

left bent backwards into agony.

‘So Myrtis thinks it’s me, does she?’

‘No,’ Cythen gasped, aware now that she had used his real name, as she had been

warned not to do. ‘She knows it could not have been you who killed Bekin. Only

women handle the serpents…’ but they were both staring at the serpent ring

shining in the candle-light.

‘What are you?’ he demanded, shaking her jaw until something ripped loose in her

neck and she could not have answered him if she had wanted to. ‘Who sent you?

What do you know?’ He bent her wrist back until it was in the candle flame. ‘Who

told you about our plans?’

Tears flowed through the kohl, washing the black powder into her eyes – but that

was the least of her pain. She screamed, finally, though wrenching her jaw free

of him was almost enough to make her faint. He caught her again, but it was too

late. Even as he beat her head against the wall, someone was banging on the

door. She fell back on the candle, extinguishing it with her body, and they

struggled against each other in the darkness.

She broke free more than once, digging her filed nails into whatever vulnerable

skin she could grab. But she did not have the strength to break his bones with

her hands and could not find, in the darkness, the panel that concealed her

knife. Someone was using an axe on the door now, and she thought perhaps it

would not all have been in vain if they caught him for her death.

He caught her by the shoulder and brought his fist crashing into her weakened