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

among the living, but accompanying these invaders.’

‘By now you all have not only seen the Beysib, but have all grown accustomed to

their strange appearance. Coming on them for the first time by torchlight on a

deserted pier as I did, though, was enough to panic a strong man … and I am

not a strong man. The hands holding the torches were webbed, as if they had come

out of the sea rather than across it. The handles of the warriors’ swords

jutting up from behind their shoulders I had seen from afar, but what I hadn’t

noted was their eyes. Those dark, unblinking eyes staring at me with the

torchlight reflecting in their depths nearly had me convinced that they would

pounce on me like a pack of animals if I showed my fear. Even now, by daylight

those eyes can …’

‘Hakiem!’

The storyteller was pleased to note that he was not the only one who started at

the sudden cry. He had not lost his touch for drawing an audience into a story.

They had forgotten the morning glare and were standing with him on a torchlit

pier.

Fast behind his pride, or perhaps overlapping it, was a wave of anger at having

been interrupted in mid-tale. It was not a kindly gaze he turned on the

interloper.

It was none other than Hort, flanked by two Beysib warriors. For a moment Hakiem

had to fight off a wave of unreality, as if the youth had stepped out of the

story to confront him in life.

‘Hakiem! You must come at once. The Beysa herself wishes to see you.’

‘She’ll have to wait,’ the storyteller declared haughtily, ignoring the murmurs