Uneasy alliances - Thieves World 11

UNEASY ALLIANCES Copyright © 1988 by Robert Lynn Aspnn and Lynn Abbey Dramatis Personae copyright © 1988 by Face of Chaos, Inc Introduction copyright © 1988 by Face of Chaos, Inc

"Slave Trade" copyright © 1988 by Robert Lynn Aspnn

"The Best of Fnends" copynght © 1988 by C J Cherryh

"The Power of Kings" copynght © 1988 by Jon DeCles

"Red Light, Love Light" copyright © 1988 by Paradise, Inc

"A Sticky Business" copyright © 1988 by C S Williams

"The Promise of Heaven" copynght © 1988 by Robin W Bailey

"The Vision of Lalo" copyright © 1988 by Diana L Paxson All rights reserved

"THIEVES' WORLD" and "SANCTUARY" are trademarks belonging to Robert Lynn Aspnn and Lynn Abbey

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other

means, without permission For information, address the Berkley Publishing Group

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or

dead, is purely coincidental

Endpaper maps by James R Odbert

Published by arrangement with

The Berkley Publishing Group

200 Madison Avenue

New York, New York 10016

Printed in the United States of America

Quality Printing and Binding by

R R Donnelley & Sons Company

1009 Stoan Street

Crawfordsville, IN 47933 USA

UNEASY ALLIANCES

CONTENTS

Dramatis Personae, Lynn Abbey ..................... 211

Introduction, Lynn Abbey ......................... 217

Slave Trade, Robert Lynn Asprin ..................... 227

The Best of Friends, C. J. Cherryh ................... 238

The Power of Kings, Jon DeCles ..................... 268

Red Light, Love Light, Chris Morris .................. 290

A Sticky Business, C. 5: Williams .................... 307

The Promise of Heaven, Robin Wayne Bailey ............. 331

The Vision of Lalo, Diana L. Paxson .................. 362

UNEASY ALLIANCES

Dramatis Personae

The Townspeople

AHDIOVIZUN; AHDIOMER viz; AHDIO—Proprietor of Sly's Place, a legendary dive within the Maze.

THRODE—An employee at Sly's Place.

CLEYA; JODEERA—The woman Ahdio loves, and who works for him at Sly's Place. Since she is far too beautiful to travel safely through the Maze, Ahdio has arranged for her to be protected by a disguise of ugliness.

i LALO THE LIMNER—Street artist gifted with magic he does not fully unj derstand.

'!: GILLA—His indomitable wife.

i

t GANNER—Their middle son, slain during the False Plague Riots of

the previous winter which signaled the end of severe civil unrest in Sanctuary.

VANDA—Their daughter, employed as nursemaid to the Beysib at the palace.

WEDEMIR—Their eldest child and son. A member of Walegrin's guard patrol.

LATILLA—Their youngest daughter.

ALFI—Their infant son.

212 UNEASY ALLIANCES

HAKIEM—Storyteller and confidant extraordinaire.

HORT—Son of a fisherman and Hakiem's apprentice.

JUBAL—Prematurely aged former gladiator. Once he openly ran Sanctuary's most visible criminal organization, the Hawkmasks, now he works behind the scenes.

SALIMAN—His aide and only friend.

MORIA—Once one ofJubal's Hawkmasks, then a servant of Ischade. She was physically transformed into a Rankan noblewoman before the magic died, and the transformation endures. She is in hiding with Stilcho.

MYRTIS—Madam of the Aphrodisia House.

SNAPPER JO—A fiend who survived the destruction of magic in Sanctuary. Once employed as a bartender in the Vulgar Unicorn.

STILCHO—Once one oflschade's resurrected minions. He was "cured" of death when magic was purged from Sanctuary.

zip—Sitter young terrorist. Leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation

of Sanctuary (PELS). Now he and his remaining fighters have been designated as officials responsible for peace in the city. The S'danzo

ILLYRA—Half-blood S'danzo seeress with True Sight. Wounded by PELS

in the False Plague Riots.

DUBRO—Bazaar blacksmith and husband to Illyra.

THE TERMAGANT—Oldest of the S'danzo women practicing her craft in Sanctuary.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The Magicians

213

ILSIGI MAGES:

MARKMOR—A powerful, ambitious, youthful wizard.

MARYPE—His arrogant, yet blundering, apprentice.

MIZRAITH—Marype's father, slain by Markmor shortly after the Prince arrived in Sanctuary.

RANKAN HAZARDS DWELLING AT THE MAGEGUILD;

RANDAL; WITCHY-EARS—The only mage ever admitted into the Sacred Band of Stepsons or trusted by them. Now a teacher at the Mageguild.

Those who adhere to no hierarchy or discipline but their own: ENAS YORL—Quasi-immortal mage cursed with eternal life and a constantly changing physical form.

ISCHADE—Necromancer and thief. Her curse is passed to her lovers who die from it. Since the diminution of magic in Sanctuary, she has been in isolation at her house on the White Foal River. STRICK;TORAZELAN STRICK TIFIRAQA—White Mage who has

made Sanctuary his home. He will help anyone who comes to him, but there is always a Price, sometimes trivial and sometimes not, for his aid.

Visitors in Sanctuary

THE SHEPHERD—A figure of considerable mystery. By his panoply he might be an Ilsigi warrior—but all such men have been dead for years. The Rankans Living in Sanctuary

CHENAYA; DAUGHTER OF THE sw—A beautiful and powerful young woman, the Prince's cousin, who is fated never to lose a fight. In her 214 UNEASY ALLIANCES

arrogance and innocence she made more enemies in Sanctuary than even fate could handle and has left town until her reputation repairs itself.

DAYRNE—Her companion and trainer.

LEYN, QUIJEN, DISMAS AND GESTUS—Her friends and gladiators at her father's school.

DAPHNE—Rankan noblewoman and first wife of Prince Kadakithis. Ostensibly sent to safety before the arrival of the Beysib, she was actually

kidnapped and sold into slavery on Scavenger's Island where Chenaya rescued her. She is estranged from her husband.

PRINCE KADAKITHIS—Charismatic but somewhat naive half-brother of the assassinated Emperor, Abakithis.

LOWAN VIGELES—Half-brother ofMolin Torchholder, father of Chenaya. A wealthy aristocrat self-exiled to Sanctuary and hoping to return to the

Rankan capital in triumph someday. He operates a gladiator school at his Land's End estate and has built a small, temporary arena there. MOLIN TORCHHOLDER; TORCH—Archpriest of Sanctuary's wargod (whichever deity that is at the moment). Architect for the rebuilt walls of

Sanctuary, Supreme bureaucratic administrator of the city. RASHAN; THE EYE OF SAVANKALA—Priest and Judge of Savankala. Highest ranking Rankan in Sanctuary prior to the arrival of the Prince, now allied with Chenaya's disaffected Rankans at Land's End. STEPSONS; SACRED BANDERS—members of a mercenary unit loyal to Tempus. Their years in Sanctuary were among the worst in their history and all but a few of them have gratefully left town.

CRITIAS;CRIT—Longtime mercenary in the company. Tempus left him in charge of peace-keeping in Sanctuary when everyone else left. Also the partner of Straton, though that pairing has been in disarray for some time now.

STRATON; STRAT; ACE—Partner ofCritias. Injured by the PELS at the start of the False Plague Riots. He has been Ischade's lover

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

215

and though her curse has not killed him, most of his former associates count him among Sanctuary's damned.

WALEGRIN—Rankan army officer assigned to the Sanctuary garrison where his father had been slain by the S'danzo many years before. He is now one of three officers responsible for the peace in Sanctuary. He is also Illyra 's half-brother.

The Beysib

SHUPANSEA; sw-SEA—Head of the Beysib exiles in Sanctuary; mortal avatar of the Beysib mother goddess. Lover of Prince Kadakithis whom she wishes to marry.

INTRODUCTION

Lynn Abbey

"No! No more blood! Make it stop!"

Shupansea awoke at the sound of her own scream. The nightmare had propelled her out of bed and to the window of her bedchamber. With a trembling hand she pulled the casement shut-This wasn't the first time she'd found herself before an open window; wasn't the first time she shed

a cold sweat wondering what would happen if some night she did not scream herself awake.

"0 Beysa, forgive my intrusion. I—I heard you scream . . ." Shupansea turned to the lamplight and faced the frightened eyes of Kammesin, the woman who had cared for her since infancy. "It was nothing—a noise in the dark. Nothing at all."

Kammesin did not relax. The old woman's eyes remained wide, round and steadily unblinking. Mother Bey! Had she been exiled so long among the fluttering Rankans that her own people looked strange and unnerving? Was her soul forgetting that the fixed stare was a gesture of honesty and transparency as much as it was a measure of uncontrolled anxiety? And had she, herself, blinked even once since waking from the nightmare?

"Yes, Kam-sin," she admitted, forcing the membrane to withdraw and her eyelids to descend. "It was the nightmare, again. But I'm all right now. Just light my lamp, then you go back to sleep." The woman gave a shrug that every servant knew. It meant the same to both Rankans and Beysibs; disbelief and resignation. "As you wish, 0

Beysa." She lit the lamp beside the bed as she left. A flush of shame burned across the Beysa's face as she heard the door 218 UNEASY ALLIANCES

close. Those folk who believed aristocrats were unaware of their servants