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

‘But she was very – experimental. So we shouldn’t have been surprised,’ Samlor

continued, ‘that she’d whelped a bastard before her marriage, while she still

lived in Cirdon. Samlane’s personal effects were sent back after she, she died ‘

Six inches of steel, her brother’s boot knife, were buried in her womb, and

vision as clear in Samlor’s mind as the edge of the knife with which he had

replaced that one. ‘I think Regli wanted to pretend she’d never been born. Alum

won’t hide stretch marks, but she’d passed for a virgin with Regli. I guess

Rankan nobles are even stupider than I’d thought. The tramp! Gods! The worthless

tramp!’

‘Go on,’ Illyra said with unexpected gentleness, as if she heard the pain and

tortured love beneath the curses.

‘The story was there in a diary, enough of it,’ Samlor continued. He was

deliberately opening his hands, which had clenched in fury at nothing material.

‘The child was a girl, fostered with a maid of Samlane’s, Reia. I probably saw

her myself -‘ he swallowed ‘-playing in the halls with the other servants’

brats. You could get lost in the house, a whole wing could crumble over you and

you’d never be found.’ The hands clenched again. ‘My parents tell me they never

knew about the child, about Samlane, in that big house. Pray god I never learn

otherwise, or I’ll have their hearts out though they are my parents.’

The S’danzo touched his hands, relaxing them again. He continued, ‘She’s four

years old by now. She has a birthmark on the front of her scalp, so the hair is