Read The face of chaos - Thieves World 05 for Free Online Page A

prisoner beside him, his horse following close behind.
    'Let them go, Crit.'
    ' What? Niko, forget the game, tonight. They'll not live to tell you helped us. We've been needing this advantage too long -'
    'Let them go, Crit.' Beside him his prisoner cursed or hissed or intoned a spell, but did not break to run. Niko stepped close to his task force leader, whispering: 'This one's an ex-commando, a fighter from Wizardwall come upon hard times. Do him a service, as I must, for services done.'
    'Nisibisi? More's the reason, then, to take them and break them-'
    'No. He's on the other side from warlocks; he'll do us more good free in the streets. Won't you. Vis?'
    The foreign-looking ruffian agreed, his voice thick with an accent detectable even in his three clipped syllables.
    Niko nodded. 'See, Crit? This is Vis. Vis, this is Crit. I'll be the contact for his reports. Go on, now. You, too, freedman, go. Run!'
    And the two, taking Niko at his word, dashed away before Crit could object. The third, in Straton's grasp, writhed wildly. This was a failed hawkmask, very likely, in Straton's estimation the prize of the three and one no word from Niko could make the mercenary loose.
    Niko agreed that he'd not try to save any ofJubal's minions, and that was that... almost. They had to keep their meeting brief; any could be peeking out from windowsill or shadowed door; but as they mounted up to ride away, Janni saw a cowled figure rising from a pool of darkness occluding the intersection. It stood, full up, momentarily, and moonrays struck its face. Janni shuddered; it was a face with hellish eyes, too far to be so big or so frightening, yet their met glance shocked him like icy water and made his limbs to shake.
    'Stealth! Did you see that?'
    'What?' Niko snapped, defensive over interfering in Crit's operation. 'See what?'
    'That - thing ...'Nothing was there, where he had seen it. 'Nothing... I'm seeing things.' Crit and Straton had reached their horses; they heard hoof beats receding in the night.
    'Show me where, and tell me what.'
    Janni swung up on his mount and led the way; when they got there they found a crumpled body, a youth with bloated tongue outstuck and rolled up eyes as if a fit had taken him, dead as Abarsis in the street. 'Oh, no ..." Niko, dismounted, rolled the corpse. 'It's one of Tamzen's friends.' The silk-and-linened body came clearer as Janni's eyes accustomed themselves to moonlight after the glare of the torch. They heaved the corpse up upon Janni's horse who snorted to bear a dead thing but forbore to refuse outright. 'Let's take it somewhere. Stealth. We can't carry it about all night.' Only then did Janni remember they'd failed to report to Crit their evening's plan.
    At his insistence, Niko agreed to ride by the Shambles Cross safe haven, caulked and shuttered in iron, where Stepsons and street men and IIsig/Rankan garrison personnel, engaged in chasing hawkmasks and other covert enterprises, made their slum reports in situ.
    They managed to leave the body there, but not to alert the task force leader; Crit had taken the hawkmask wherever he thought the catch would serve them best; nothing was in the room but the interrogation wheel and bags of lime to tie on unlucky noses and truncheons of sailcloth filled with gravel and iron filings to change the most steadfast heart. They left a note, carefully coded, and hurried back on to the street. Niko's brow was furrowed, and Janni, too, was in a hurry to see if they might find Tamzen and her friends asa living group, not one by one, cold corpses in the gutter.
    The witch Roxane had house snakes, a pair brought down from Nisibis, green and six feet long, each one. She brought them into her study and set their baskets by the hearth. Then, bowl of water by her side, she spoke the words that turned them into men. The facsimiles aped a pair of Stepsons; she got them clothes and sent them off. Then she took the water bowl and stirred it with her finger until a whirlpool