'Now,' she said. 'About the other thing you have in mind ... well, that mightcome later, mightn't it? But you choose, Mradhon Vis. There's gold ... or otherrewards. And you can tell me which you'd like. Ah. Both, perhaps. Ambition. Butknow me better, Mradhon Vis, before you propose anything aloud. You might notlike my terms. Take the gold. The likes of Sjekso Kinzan is commoner than you.And far less to regret.'

So she had killed the boy. Markless, and cold and stiff within sight of thedoorway which might have saved him. He thought about it... and the ambitionpersisted. It was power. And that was more than the money, much more.

'You'll go now,' she said very, very softly. 'I wouldn't tempt you. Consider wehave a bargain. Now get out.'

No one talked to him after that fashion ... at least not twice. But he foundhimself silenced and his steps tending to the door. He stopped there and lookedback to prove he could.

'I've needed a man of your sort,' she said, 'in certain ways.'

He walked out, into the sun.

4

It was one of those neighbourhoods less frequented by the inhabitants of theMaze, and Hanse had a dislocated, uncomfortable feeling in this guide and thisplace, creeping as they did through the cleaner, wider backways of Sanctuary atlarge. It was not his territory or close to any of his known boltholes.

And in the shadows of an alley far along the track, his guide paused and shed aninner and ragged cloak from beneath the outer one, proffering it. 'Put it on.You'll not want to be noticed hereabouts for yourself.'

Hanse took it, not without distaste: it was grey and a mass of patches. He swungit about his shoulders and it was long enough to hide him down to midcalf.

His guide held out a dingy bandage as well. 'For your eyes. For your own safety.The house has ... protections. If I told you only to shut your eyes, you'dforget at the worst moment. And my master wants you whole.'

Hanse stared at the offered rag, liking all of this less and less; and verysoftly he drew the dagger from his arm sheath and extended the blade towardsthe guide's face.

Not a flinch or blink. That sent a prickling up his spine. He brought the pointof the blade very close to the blind eyes and, truth, the man did not react. Heflipped the blade into its sheath.

'If you have doubts,' the blind man said, 'accept my master's assurances. Butdon'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 haddealt with nervous uptowners before, and under conditions and precautionsmore bizarre and hazardous. He wound it about his eyes and tied it firmly: itwas 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 panicset in: he had no liking of this helplessness - they entered a street, heguessed, because he heard a change in the sound of their footsteps; he sensedwatchers about, stumbled suddenly on an unevenness in the paving and heard theblind 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. Thena tug at his sleeve drew him inside, where a cold draught blew on his face untilthe door boomed solidly shut behind him. Instinctively he put a hand on hiswrist sheath, keeping the knife hilt comfortingly under his fingers. Again a tugat his sleeve drew him on ... the guide; it must still be the guide and nostranger 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. Hemade a frantic move to get the knife out, but the guide jerked him to astandstill. '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 thesurface of his boot and coiled about his ankle, instantly withdrawing. The guidedrew him on, away from the touch and down a hall which echoed more closely oneither hand, where the distance was all in front of them ... and into a placewhich smelled of coals and hot metal and strange, musky incense.

The guide stopped, on his right. 'Shadowspawn,' a new voice said, a throatysigh, 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 midnightblue and bright silver, in deep shadow, beside a heating brazier. Hanse blinkedin the recent pressure on his eyes - the robes seemed to swell and sink in thevicinity of the chest, and the right arm, the hand resting visible ... it wentdark, 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 lastnight. Do you want to know how?'

That unnerved him, a threat on a level he understood. His hand fidgeted towardshis sheath-bearing wrist, his mind conjuring more and unblinded servants in theshadows.

'Ischade is her name,' the voice ofEnas Yorl continued, rougher now ... and wasthe figure itself smaller and wider? 'She's also a thief. And she killed SjeksoKinzan. Do you want more?'

Hanse assumed a more careless stance, flipped the hand outward, palm up. 'Moneygot me here. Ifyou,want more of my time to listen to this, it costs.'

'She's in your own neighbourhood. That information might be worth even more thanmoney to you.'

'What, this name of yours?'

'Ischade. A thief. She's better than you, Shadowspawn. Your knives might notstop her.' The voice roughened further. 'But you're good and you're smart. I'veheard so. From - no matter. I have my sources. I'm told you're extraordinarilydiscreet.' He moved the fingers, a gesture sideways. 'Darous, give him theamulet.'

The blind man drew something from the heart of his robes; Hanse's eyes dartednervously from the wizard he was trying to watch to that distraction, a goldteardrop that spun and dazzled on a chain.

'Take it,' Enas Yorl said. A degree rougher yet. A sigh like the sea, or likehot iron plunging into water. 'This Ischade - steals from wizards. Steals spellsand suchlike. Her own abilities are small in that regard... but she made amistake once, and the spell on Ischade is nothing small or harmless. A man whoshares her bed, shall we say? - discovers that. He dies ... of no apparentcause. Like your friend Kinzan. Like a number of others I know of. The curseaffects her humour. Imagine - to pursue lover after lover and kill them all. IfI hire you, Shadowspawn, you might be glad of such protections as I offer you.Take it.'

'Who says I'm to hire?' Hanse looked unhappily from servant to master. The handwhich now peeped from the shifting robe was woman-delicate. 'Who says that adozen Sjeksos are any of my concern? I'm my concern. Me. Hanse. I don't have anyinterest in Sjekso. So I just stay out of the whole business. That's whatinterests me.'

'Then you'll run, will you, and find some safer place to steal.' The voiceground like rocks tumbling. 'And you'll ignore my gold and protection. Both ofwhich you may need. - It's no great thing I ask, simply a matter of spying outwhere she is. Did I ask you to go against her yourself? No. A small favour, wellpaid. And you've done favours like that before. Would you have that known - thatyou've worked in high places? Your past patron wouldn't appreciate thatpublicity. He wouldn't retaliate against me, no. But you - how long do you thinkyou'd live, thief, if your connections went public?'