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

Gilla bustled nervously about the room, smoothing the covers, heaping pillows

behind Lalo so that he could sit, pushing a chair back against the wall. Lalo

flexed his fingers, feeling them tingle as blood began to circulate freely once

more, and wondered how he had gotten the scratch on his arm.

Beside the pallet were piled some scraps of paper and a piece of charcoal. Can I

still draw? he wondered, and seeing that Gilla was not watching him, he pulled a

piece of paper towards him, picked up the charcoal and drew a line, then

another, then some shading, and the paper showed him a deftly drawn

representation of a common Sanctuary dunghill fly. He stared at it for a moment

with a question he dared not even put into words, but it remained unchanged

before him – a drawing of a fly.

Lalo smiled a little wryly and set the charcoal down. What did I expect, here?

Gilla came back to him with the bowl of steaming soup in her hands, sat down

beside the pallet, and dipped in the spoon. Lalo blew gently on his drawing to

get rid of the charcoal dust and laid it aside. When Gilla held the spoon to his

lips he opened his mouth obediently. / could do this myself, he thought, but he

realized that feeding him fulfilled some need of Gilla’s own. The hot liquid

soothed his throat, and his body seemed to absorb the moisture like a sponge.

‘That’s enough for now,’ said Gilla, taking it away.

‘It was very good.’ Lalo looked at her face, wondering how he had ever seen

anything but the goddess there. Then he frowned. ‘I was painting a picture,