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

all the same, watching his footing on this treacherous ground. He could look

away from that face, or look back again, and a strange peace came on him, facing

this creature who was the centre of all his fears. No more running. No more

evasion. There was a certain security in loss. He stopped, took an easy stance,

there above the flood.

‘What’s the job?’ he asked, as if there had never been an interlude. The light

brightened fitfully, in the witch’s outheld hand.

‘Mor-am,’ she said. A shadow moved from among the pilings to stand by her. Light

fell on a ruined, still-familiar face.

‘0 gods,’ Mradhon heard beside him, Moria lunged and he caught her arm. Hers was

hard and tense; she twisted like a cat, but he held on.

‘Moria,’ her twin said, no longer twin, ‘for Ils’ sake listen -‘

She stopped fighting then. Perhaps it was the face, which was vastly, horribly

changed. Perhaps it was Haught, who moved in the way of her knifehand, making

himself the barrier, too careless of his life. Haught was a madman. And he could

win what no one else could. Moria stood still, still heaving for breath, while

Mor-am stood still at Ischade’s side.

‘See what love is worth,’ Ischade said, smiling without love at all. ‘And

loyalty, of course.’ She walked a pace nearer, on the slanted stones. ‘Mor-am’s

loyalty, now – it’s to himself, his own interests; he knows.’

‘Don’t,’ Mor-am said, with more earnestness than ever Mradhon had heard from the

hardnosed, streetwise seller of his friends; for a moment the face seemed

twisted, the body diminished, then straightened again – a trick of the light,