Thieves World 8 – Soul of the City by Asprin, Robert

monotone: “It attacked him-and he killed it. Ripped it apart and started to eat

it-didn’t he?”

The Froth Daughter reached back to grasp Tempus by the wrist. “He was berserk,”

she said softly. “He didn’t know what he was doing. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Glittering crystals of ice and water formed in her eyes.

Critias gave them a malignant stare. When he reached the door he gave Kama the

same stare, for reasons Molin could not begin to understand, then he shoved her

aside. Molin felt the muscles tighten along his sword arm. It would be the

height of folly-Kama fought her own battles and Critias was as cold a killer as

moved through the shadows-but the Stepson would answer for that gesture.

“Roxane has taken Stealth?” Kama asked the frozen room. None of the rumors

circulating in the Maze had presumed so much.

Tempus pulled his arm away from Jihan. “Not yet,” he muttered as he followed

Crit from the room.

Molin and Kama turned to Jihan who, with a slight nod of her head, confirmed

their worst suspicion. Kama sank back against the wall, shaking her head from

side to side. The Froth Daughter, for her part, reclaimed her mortar and went to

kneel beside the slate-haired Stepson.

“He was drunk,” the dark-haired mercenary said to herself. “Too much wine. Too

much krrf. Too much everything.” She closed her eyes, purging herself of grief

and Niko with long, ragged breaths.

“It’s not over yet,” Molin told her, daring to take her arm and realizing, with

some surprise, that he looked straight ahead, not down, into her eyes. “Last