Free Wings of Omen - Thieves World 06 by Robert Asprin Page A

Truly, Savankala has blessed me."
    She saw her father frown. To him, her words were mere boastfulness. Though he disapproved, he was used to such from her. He leaned his bulk against the doorjamb. "You're going out?" he said, indicating her dress.
    "It's nearly dark," she answered. "I'm goings to the temple. Then, there's a lot to leam about this city." She turned that mocking smile on Molin. "Wasn't it you. Uncle, who told me nighttime is best for prying secrets?"
    "Certainly not!" he snapped indignantly. "And if you go out dressed like that you'll find nothing but trouble. Some of the elements in this town would kill just for those clothes, let alone that fancy sword or that circlet." She went back to the open chest, produced two sheathed daggers, and thrust them through the ornamental straps on her thigh. "I won't be alone," she announced.
    "I'm taking Reyk."
    "Who's Reyk?" Molin asked Lowan Vigeles. "One of those giants you brought with you?"
    Lowan just shook his head. "Take care, child," he told his daughter. "The street is a very different kind of arena."
    Chenaya lifted a hooded cloak from her chest and shut the lid. As she passed from the room, she raised on tiptoe to peck her father's cheek. She gave nothing to Molin Torch-holder but her back.
    It wasn't sand beneath her boots, nor was there any crowd to cheer her on, yet it was an arena. She could feel the prey waiting, watching from the shadowed crannies and gloom-filled alleyways. She could hear the breathing, see the dull gleam of eyes in the dark places.
    It was an arena, yes. But here, the foe did not rush to engage, no clamor of steel on steel to thrill the spectators. Here, the foe skulked, crouched, crawled in places it thought she couldn't see: tiny thieves with tiny hearts empty of courage, tiny cutthroats with more blade than backbone. She laughed softly to herself, jingling her purse to encourage them, taunting them as she would not a more honorable foe in the games.
    They watched her, and she watched them watching. Perhaps, she thought, ;// throw back my hood and reveal my sex.... Yet she did not. There was much she had to do this night and much to leam.
    The Avenue of Temples was dark and deserted. She located the Temple of the Rankan Gods easily, a grand structure that loomed above all others. Two bright flaming braziers illumined the huge doors at its entrance. However, hammer as she might with the iron ring, no one within answered. She cursed, m the capital the temples neverclosed. She slammed the ring one last time and turned away.
    "Father of us all," she prayed tight-lipped as she descended the temple stairs,
    "speak to me as you did that night long ago." But the gods were silent as the city streets.
    She paused to get her bearings, and realized the high wall on her right must be part of the Governor's compound. The park on her left, then, would be the Promise of Heaven, or so she had heard it called earlier as she rode past it to her home. There, men who could not afford a higher class of prostitute haggled for sexual favors from half-starved amateurs. She shrugged, passed the park by, following the Governor's wall until she came to another street she recognized from her day's tour, the Processional.
    She stopped again, looked up at the sky, and marveled at how brightly the stars shone over this pit of a city. Though she prayed to Savankala and swore in his name, the night fascinated her. It had a taste and a feel like no other time. She whistled a low note. A fleet shadow glided overhead, eclipsing stars in its path, and plummeted. She extended the arm on which she wore the manica, and Reyk screeched a greeting as he folded his wings and settled on her wrist. She smacked her lips by way of reply and attached a jess from her belt to his leg.
    "Do you feel it, too, pet?" she whispered to the falcon. "The city? The dark?
    It's alive." She smacked her lips again and Reyk fluttered his wings. "Of course you do." She looked around, turning a full