"Anthony, Piers - Incarnations 04 - Wielding A Red Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

warn her; but she was distracted by her shopping, and his
effort to speak was inhibited by the stutter, so that he
could not get through to her.

He sighed to himself. His hand remained in the pocket,
out of sight. Accident? he thought at the ring, but it
squeezed twice. Malice? That brought a single squeeze.
Robbery? Three squeezes. And rape? he thought, and got
a single squeeze. And murder? One squeeze. The thug-
gees? One squeeze.

Now he tried again to warn Orb. He caught her arm
and squeezed, somewhat harder than would ordinarily
have been necessary. She paused, looking at him, real-
izing that something was amiss. He made a motion with
his head, signaling toward the region from which they had
come.

"Time to go home?" she asked, and he nodded
affirmatively.

"Very well," she said. "Just let me find one more
thing."

He tried to signal no, but she didn't understand. Rather
than make a scene, he waited, though the ring was pulsing
warning.

Orb completed her purchase, and they started back.
Mym guided her along a route they had not taken before,
hoping to give the thuggees the slip, but soon he saw the
subtle pursuit developing. They were watching, closing
inЧthree, four, five of them. They wanted the money the
woman evidently had to spend and her body, and they
were not the type to leave witnesses behind. The King-
dom had made an effort to eliminate the criminal class,
now called the thuggees, though these were not actually
connected to the original guild of assassins. They were
just common cutthroats, always on the prowl for vulner-
able wealth, not trained killers but dangerous when they
banded together.

Mym's teeth bared in an unconscious snarl. He hated




14 Wielding a Red Sward

the thuggees, of whatever stripe! But he hao not brought