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don't under any account look from beneath the bandage once inside. My
blindness
... has reasons.'
'Huh.' Hanse took the dirty bandage, feeling far from assured; but he had
dealt with nervous uptowners before, and under conditions and
precautions
more bizarre and hazardous. He wound it about his eyes and tied it firmly: it
was true - about Enas Yorl's doorway there were rumours, and bad ones.
And when the blind man grasped his sleeve and began to guide him a quiet
panic
set in: he had no liking of this helplessness - they entered a street, he
guessed, because he heard a change in the sound of their footsteps; he
sensed
watchers about, stumbled suddenly on an unevenness in the paving and
heard the
blind man hiss a warning, wrenching at his sleeve: 'Three steps up.'
Three steps to the top and a moment waiting while his guide opened a door.
Then
a tug at his sleeve drew him inside, where a cold draught blew on his face
until
the door boomed solidly shut behind him. Instinctively he put a hand on his
wrist sheath, keeping the knife hilt comfortingly under his fingers. Again a
tug
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r r
at his sleeve drew him on ... the guide; it must still be the guide and no
stranger by him. He wanted a voice. 'How much further with this?' he asked.
Claws scrabbled on stone on his left, a heavy body slithered closer in haste.
He
made a frantic move to get the knife out, but the guide jerked him to a
standstill. 'Don't offend it,' the guide said. 'Don't try to look. Come on.'
A reptile hissed; and by that sound it was a big one. Something flicked over
the
surface of his boot and coiled about his ankle, instantly withdrawing. The
guide
drew him on, away from the touch and down a hall which echoed more
closely on
either hand, where the distance was all in front of them ... and into a place
which smelled of coals and hot metal and strange, musky incense.
The guide stopped, on his right. 'Shadowspawn,' a new voice said, a throaty
sigh, low, and to his left. He reached for the blindfold, hesitated. 'Go ahead,'
the new voice invited him, and he pulled it down.
A robed and hooded form sat in this narrow marble hall - fine robes, in
midnight
blue and bright silver, in deep shadow, beside a heating brazier. Hanse
blinked
in the recent pressure on his eyes - the robes seemed to swell and sink in the
vicinity of the chest, and the right arm, the hand resting visible ... it went
dark, that hand, and then, a deception of his abused eyes, went pale and
young.
'Shadowspawn.' The voice too was clearer, younger. 'You lost a friend last
night. Do you want to know how?'
That unnerved him, a threat on a level he understood. His hand fidgeted
towards
his sheath-bearing wrist, his mind conjuring more and unblinded servants in
the
shadows.
'Ischade is her name,' the voice ofEnas Yorl continued, rougher now ... and
was
the figure itself smaller and wider? 'She's also a thief. And she killed Sjekso
Kinzan. Do you want more?'
Hanse assumed a more careless stance, flipped the hand outward, palm up.
'Money
got me here. Ifyou,want more of my time to listen to this, it costs.'
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r r
'She's in your own neighbourhood. That information might be worth even
more than
money to you.'
'What, this name of yours?'
'Ischade. A thief. She's better than you, Shadowspawn. Your knives might
not
stop her.' The voice roughened further. 'But you're good and you're smart.
I've
heard so. From - no matter. I have my sources. I'm told you're
extraordinarily
discreet.' He moved the fingers, a gesture sideways. 'Darous, give him the
amulet.'
The blind man drew something from the heart of his robes; Hanse's eyes
darted
nervously from the wizard he was trying to watch to that distraction, a gold
teardrop that spun and dazzled on a chain.
'Take it,' Enas Yorl said. A degree rougher yet. A sigh like the sea, or like
hot iron plunging into water. 'This Ischade - steals from wizards. Steals spells
and suchlike. Her own abilities are small in that regard... but she made a
mistake once, and the spell on Ischade is nothing small or harmless. A man
who [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]