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

former shape.

‘I – t-turned – traitor,’ the traitor said, wept, sobbed. ‘I s-s-sold them, sold

other hawkmasks – to the Stepsons. My sister and I -we had to live, after Jubal

lost it all. I mean, how were we going to live? – We didn’t know. We had to. I

had to. My sister – didn’t know.’ She had let go the pain and the words kept

coming, with the tears. His eyes strayed from her to the mirror. ‘0 gods -‘

‘Go on,’ she said, ever so softly, for this was truth, she knew. ‘What do the

Stepsons want? What do you want? What are you prepared to pay?’

‘Ge( Moruth. That’s what they want. The beggar-lord. And this man – this man of

theirs, they think the beggars have got, get him back – safe.’

‘These are not trifles.’

‘They’ll pay – I’m sure – they’ll pay.’

She unfolded the note, perused it carefully, holding it before the light. It

said much of that. It offered gold. It promised – immunities – at which she

smiled, not humorously. ‘Why, it mentions you,’ she said. ‘It says I might lend

you back to Jubal. Do you think he would

be amused?’

‘No,’ he said. There was fear, multiplying fear: she could smell it. It prickled

at her nerves.

‘But when you carry messages for rogues,’ she said, ‘you should expect such

small jokes.’ She folded the note carefully, folded it several times until it

was quite small, until she opened her hand, being whimsical, and the paper note

was gone.

He watched this, this magician’s trick, this cheap comedy of bazaars. It amused

her to confound him, to suddenly brighten all the fires ’til the candles gleamed