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

unlucky noses and truncheons of sailcloth filled with gravel and iron filings to

change the most steadfast heart. They left a note, carefully coded, and hurried

back on to the street. Niko’s brow was furrowed, and Janni, too, was in a hurry

to see if they might find Tamzen and her friends asa living group, not one by

one, cold corpses in the gutter.

The witch Roxane had house snakes, a pair brought down from Nisibis, green and

six feet long, each one. She brought them into her study and set their baskets

by the hearth. Then, bowl of water by her side, she spoke the words that turned

them into men. The facsimiles aped a pair of Stepsons; she got them clothes and

sent them off. Then she took the water bowl and stirred it with her finger until

a whirlpool sucked and writhed. This she spoke over, and out to sea beyond the

harbour a like disturbance began to rage. She took from her table six carven

ships with Beysib sails, small and filled with wax miniatures of men. These she

launched into the basin with its whirlpool and spun and spun her finger round

until the flagships of the fleet foundered, then were sunk and sucked to lie, at

last, upon the bottom of the bowl. Even after she withdrew her finger the water

raged awhile. The witch looked calmly into her maelstrom and nodded once,

content. The diversion would be timely; the moon, outside her window, was nearly

high, scant hours from its zenith.

Then it was time to take Jagat’s report and send the death squads – or dead

squads, for none of those who served in them had life of their own to lead into