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

65
    Bitterness unanswerable. Kama sprinted for the door she'd always shunned, behind which was something she didn't want anything to do with: Ischade.
    Through the gate, up the steps, and stop, hearing your own breathing, wondering what you'll do if she's hurt him, ensorcelled him, gotten her claws into him like Strat, and Janni, and Stilcho and the rest . , . Knocking with your heart pounding louder, suddenly aware of more than one male in there behind that forbidding door, and hoping those other voices aren't undead voices. You've only seen the undeads at a distance, and even the memory raises gooseflesh . . . "Ah, Madame Ischade, I'm here for Crit." Blurted like a fool in a voice higher than you've heard yourself use since school days.
    Inky eyes deeper than any uncursed well, a pale face whose features are somehow indiscernible, and a hand cold as anything Kama could remember touching.
    "Good," nodded the creature in her cowl. Behind her were colors, rioting jewel tones, but Ischade was all white and black. Black. "Come in." Black eyes, so deep you could sleep in them. Don't fall into any trap. Don't look at her too long. "Crit?" On tiptoes.
    "Crit?" The swathed shape moves away. "C/7Y?" There he is, with two men she recognized: Vis, and a beggar with a stutter, a creature called Mor-am. Wrong company, wrong place, wrong something going down here.
    Kama shivered and feit throwing stars she'd gotten from Niko nestled in her belt. Could you kill anything here? Would it stay dead? Could she take out the beggar, the mere, and Ischade if Crit needed that much help?
    She could try, couldn't do less. But then Crit came slowly to the door, his gait telegraphing annoyance, but nothing worse. "Good evening," he said and Kama couldn't figure where the vampire had disappeared to.
    "What brings you here, Kama?"
    He somehow shouldered her outside and then the door was closed, his hands on her shoulders, tight and hard, digging. "Fool," Crit whispered,
    "don't mix in this. I've got enough troubles." His lips hardly moved when he spoke; the hollows under his cheeks were too deep; his whole bearing was wrong and she was terrified.
    "Crit, gods, whatever it is, you can't do it alone. Strat's with me, we're
    here to—"
    "Strat? With you? He bunks here, Kama. Sleeps here. Does whatever he does here. For her. Not us. Go away. I'm finding someone for Torchholder. Special orders."
    She tried to shake off his grip. It wouldn't shake. She said defiantly,
    "Whatever you're doing, I'm doing. Special orders." 66

AFTERMATH
    He couldn't verify that, not without going to Randal. And Randal might lie for Kama, might say Tempus had sent a message. The touch of him made her ache and she suddenly wondered whether if, for just one night, every lover in Sanctuary could be in the right bed,
    things might straighten out.
    Critias's usually handsome Syrese face had none of its gentility tonight;
    it was a fright mask, just shields for eyes and a slash where his mouth should be-He tucked in his chin, bowed his head to stare into her face, then shook his head infinitesimally: "You want in, fine. We're going uptown to the ruined blocks, see if we can't find Tasfalen in one of the houses left standing there. That's where she says to look. Me, the two backstreeters she owns, and you. But no Strat."
    "Crit, he—"
    "Can't be trusted. Too much her creature. Tell him to back off, out of sight till I leave. Tell him if he wants to talk to me, get rid of the horse as
    a sign of good faith. Or of returning sanity. I don't need a ghost horse, or
    a ghost rider, which is what he's becoming. Go on. Tell him. Then meet me at the gate."
    He gave her a little push and she wished he felt so strongly about her, even if those feelings were as hard and fierce as what he felt for Strat.
    Like a page in court, she ran back to Strat's horse and said, '"He says he's going uptown to find Tasfalen for Torchholder. Doesn't want you involved. We'll talk to you iater. You stay with