Aftermath- - Thieves World 10 by Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey

marble mapboards. And jammed his hands in his pockets, walking hurriedly away.
    "Zip," she called, catching up, reaching out, and he couldn't seem to jerk his elbow away. "We need you. /need you. And you owe me this—" He stopped. He should have known it would come to that-"Right, we're all working together now and anyway, one time you saved my ass so I'm yours to command? No chance, lady. These're Ilsig matters, and you ain't one. Understand, or do I have to say it in Rankene?"
    "I understand that you found some sort of talisman on the beach and that if you give it to that . . . thing . . . you've been feeding human flesh to, you might not be able to finish what you start. If you've got to
    move the stones, I'll make a deal with you."
    He crossed his arms and looked down at her. At least he had that advantage: he was taller. He said; "Go on, let's hear it."
    "I won't tell anyone about the altar, or what's in it, as long as no perceptible trouble comes from it, if you'll give me the talisman you were
    going to give to it."
    "How do you find this crap out?" he blurted. "Is it Randal, your pet mage? You been following me? What?"
    She just looked up at him, her eyes full of a surety and power that her little, female body shouldn't have been able to contain, let alone radiate.
    It was Tempus's blood in her, some more-than-human attribute, he was certain.
    He said then, "No. I'm not doing anything like that. Why should I?" and turned to go back down the hill.
    ^ AFTERMATH
    And Straton was there, on that freakish bay horse everybody knew
    ?out, come from nowhere, out of nothing, leaning on his saddlehom,
    .eaning his thumbnail with a glittering blade. There, right between Zip nd the path down to the riverbank.
    "Going somewhere, pud?" said Strat.
    "Strat," said Kama, "I can handle this."
    "I was just leaving," Zip replied.
    "No you can't," said Strat to both of them. Then: "Zip, what she
    /ants, you give her. What she ordered, you do. Or deal with me. Kama, nere's something more important than piffles going on out there. Finish
    /ith your boy toy and let's get going."
    Kama winced but held out her hand steadily and said to Zip, "Either ive me the talisman, or Strat and I are going down there and crush five T six of those stones. Do you want to risk that, and what will follow if he three of us have a falling-out?"
    Zip looked from the big fighter to the slight woman and saw a shared mrpose there; an implacable, uncaring deadliness common among those ure that their Cause was worth serving. He had to leam to match their pirit. Until then, he'd never win against them.
    He reached into his beltpouch and handed her the object a girl had bund in the seawrack. It hardly glittered. It wasn't even gold, just ironze. "Here, take it. And take out your lust somewhere else, from now
    )n. I don't want to mess with you no more."
    He heard Strat's raw titter as he stalked away, and it scratched blood
    'rom his soul-He wondered if the thing in the altar would consider the extenuating circumstances under which he'd lost its gift. And what would happen if it did not.
    Ischade's Foalside home was dimly lit, numinous. When they got there, Kama recognized Crit's gray horse and squeezed her eyes shut. No wonder Strat had come running to get her: Crit at Ischade's was naphtha too close to a torch.
    "Gods, Strat, we both still love him, you know?"
    "I figure," Strat agreed in an odd tone. "But he doesn't love us. Get him out of there, Kama. If I go in, it's just more trouble. She isn't going
    to take kindly to him sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong." Kama was already off her horse, handing Strat its reins. "I know. You stay here, there's no use of you two getting into a brawl over this." Poised
    to sprint for the door, she turned back: "Strat, we have to get used to things the way my father left them. It hurts all of us. Crit didn't want this
    command. Not this way."
    "That and a soldat will still get you laid at Myrtis's."

WAKE OF THE RIDDLER