Free The price of victory- - Thieves World 13 by Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey Page A

chance.

    •That's why I didn't kill you."

    "What?"

    "I wanted to finish the job I started so long ago."

    Amuuth gasped. He could not help it. Cade couldn't mean—

    "It was me, Amuuth. Sixteen years ago I hunted you and the other three, with my brick and rope." Cade shrugged. "I don't know which one you were. When I caught you, I guess I should have killed you."

    "You," Amuuth shouted, "you did this!" He held out his hands, trying to stand up, but his legs wouldn't move yet.

    Cade smiled. "The legs take longer."

    Amuuth said nothing. He knew there would be no help, no rescue. He
    ^as dead. He looked up at Cade, his eyes burning with hate. This is the
    ®an. The shadow he still woke up screaming from. The shadow from Page 88
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    46

AFTERMATH

    that night. Unseen, unheard. The whistling noise, the agony in his side, in his head, his legs, and finally his fingers. He wondered that he, himself, had not made the connection between his pain and Terrel's.

    "I'm glad then," he hissed, "I'm glad I made him pay."

    "No, Amuuth, you did not make him pay. You tortured him out of spite, because even with his ruined hands he made it out. Made a life. That's why you did it, for petty reasons. For envy. I have known evil in many faces, Amuuth, but I have never seen it so pathetic."

    Amuuth sputtered, his mind refusing to give him words to match his outrage. This one, gods, all along. He could have had him long ago, had his revenge. But now . - .

    Cade moved around the table toward him, like a great black cat, and he was the mouse. There was nothing definable in Cade's eyes or face. Amuuth had no idea how he would finally die.

    "Finish the job," Cade whispered, moving closer, taking his time. Page 89
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Amuuth shuddered. He was frozen, could not move, and it wasn't the drug that was holding him now. His broken left hand reached for the right. For the snake ring. Hitting a latch, long fangs extending. Could he get Cade with his own poison? Not likely ... he could kill himself, before the pain started. Or ...

    Amuuth looked over at Raif. The boy stared at Cade, his face blood less, his eyes wide. Amuuth remembered Raif's brother—he had feared that one. He had tried to entice Raif into the gang, hoping he could mold him as the older boy could not be molded. The boy could be dangerous. Amuuth was struck by a memory. Cade had run a gang for a while: the Demons. They had been terrible, violent, dangerous. They only ran a block and a half but they owned it. And Raif looked, looks, so much like the young gang leader Cade had once been.

    Amuuth understood. Cade saw himself in the boy. Wanted to help. Change it. Vengeance can be sweet
    Amuuth tugged the ring off and looked at Raif.

    "I'm dead, boy," he said. "You might as well have this ring." He threw it to Raif before Cade could react.

    "No!" Cade shouted and lunged, but he was too late. Raif caught the ring, dropping it immediately when he felt a double sting in one of his fingers.
    Page 90
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    "What?" he said, but even as he lifted the hand to look, he stumbled, the air thick, too thick to breathe. The floor rose up to meet him. He panicked. He could not breathe. He was surrounded by stone, encased in it.

    Cade reached him in time to stop the fall. But he could feel Raif's flesh

CADE 47

    already puffing up, the limbs getting rigid. He spun to face Amuuth, his eyes pinning the gang leader to his chair.

    "The antidote!" he yelled.

    "None." Amuuth's voice was harsh. "None. A gift from the finger of a dead fish-eye." Cade said nothing, not taking his eyes off his enemy. His hand reached down to touch the boy. He was already dead. All hope dies in hell's capital, in Sanctuary.

    Cade was still for a moment, then slowly he tipped his head back until he