The Exotic Enchanter by L. Sprague de Camp, Lyon Sprague de Camp, Christopher Stasheff Page A

incantations to enable us to see in the darkness. Do you not have such?"
    "No," Shea said, "but we'd love to learn them." He pointed at a group of men who seemed to be practicing some sort of martial art, except that Shea could very clearly make out some movements that seemed to be those of cutting purse strings. "What are they doing?"
    Chankoor seemed to puff himself up, grinning with self-importance. "They practice the lessons of the god with the golden spear."
    "What god is that?" Chalmers asked.
    Chankoor stared in surprise. "You are thieves, and do not know?"
    "Thieves from lands far to the west, remember," Shea said quickly, " very far to the west."
    Chankoor muttered something about ignorant barbarians, but explained, "He is Kartikeya, the god of thieves, who revealed to the master Yugacharya the Chauriya Vidya, the Thieves' Manual . Any who wish to succeed in theft must know its precepts by heart. Regard those men, now . . ." He pointed at two men who labored at the base of a wall. ". . . and those, those, and those!" He pointed out three other groups who were also at work on the walls of three other shops. "They carry out the four modes of breaching a house."
    Shea peered through the darkness, and saw that the first pair were picking bricks out piece by piece. Shoddy material, no doubt—and Chankoor confirmed it. "Burnt bricks," he explained, but didn't say who had burned them. Another pair were at work with a cold chisel, cutting through. "Those bricks are unbaked, and old," Chankoor explained. "The monsoon winds softened them quite nicely—but exposure to sun or salt will do as well."
    The third pair needed no explanation—they were splashing a mud wall with bucketfuls of water. Shea shuddered, feeling that he had never fully appreciated modern construction methods before. He also didn't need much explanation for the fourth pair—all he needed to see was the huge augur with which they were boring into the wall of a wooden house. "They're going to have to drill a lot of holes before they can make one big enough to crawl through."
    "Not so many as you would think," Chankoor said offhandedly. "They have saws with slender blades with which they can join the holes. See with what artistry they practice their craft! These sons of Skanda make breaches in the shape of lotus blossoms, of the sun, the new moon, the lake, and the water jar!"
    "They do seem to be enjoying their work," Chalmers said diplomatically. "I find it hard to believe that a group of such, ah, 'rugged individualists' would be willing to take orders from anyone."
    "Ah, but you have not seen the captain yet!" Chankoor said with a grin. "Come, let us find him!"
    Moonlight or not, they were caught in a maze of single-story mud-brick houses that was a tribute to a lack of city planning. Shea found himself growing dizzy with the turns and twists. He did notice that they seemed to avoid the big stone buildings carefully. As they went, other bands of three and four came out of side streets to join them, clanking bags on their backs, laughing and joking over their good luck. It made Shea's flesh crawl, especially since he was soon surrounded by them. Looking up, he happened to notice the disguised rajah only a few feet away; he had apparently been taken up by one of the other squadrons, just as Shea and Chalmers had. Shea nudged Chalmers and nodded at the rajah, ever so slightly; Chalmers looked, and his eyes widened. He exchanged a quick worried glance with Shea before they both turned back to the front, marching onward in the midst of a mob of muggers, feeling as though they walked under the Sword of Damocles.
    Then they turned a corner and almost ran into the city wall. Shea jolted to a stop out of sheer surprise, but a knife-point in his back, and a snarl, motivated him to go forward again. "How are we going to get over it?" he whispered to one of his captors, but the man hissed back, "All shall become evident to the enterprising. Forward!"
    Shea gulped