"Feist, Raymond E - The Riftwar Legacy 02 - Krondor- The Assassins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

away.

This time, it had been different.

A new gang showed up on the docks, a large number of Keshian thugs among
them. That alone wasn t worth notice; Krondor was a major port of trade
with Kesh. What made this group unusual was their indifference to the
threat posed by the Mockers. They acted in a provocative fashion, openly
moving cargo into and out of the city, bribing officials and daring the
Mockers to interfere with them. They seemed to be inviting a
confrontation.

At last the Mockers had acted, and it had been a disaster. Eleven of the
most feared bashers the enforcers among the Guild of Thieves had been
lured into a warehouse at the end of a semi-deserted dock. They had been
trapped inside and the building set afire, killing all eleven. From that
moment on, warfare had erupted deep in Krondor s underworld.

18 The Mockers had been driven to ground, and the invaders, working for
someone known only as the Crawler, had also suffered, as the Prince of
Krondor had acted to restore order to his city.

Rumor had it some men dressed as Nighthawks members of the Guild of
Assassins had been seen weeks before in the sewer, bait to bring the
Prince s army in after them, with the final destruction of the Mockers
as the apparent goal. It was a foregone conclusion that had the Prince s
guard entered the sewers in sufficient numbers, everyone found down
below the streets assassins, false Nighthawks, or Mockers all would be
routed out or captured. It was a clever plan, but it had come to naught.

Squire James, once Jimmy the Hand of the Mockers, had foiled that ruse,
before vanishing into the night on a mission for the Prince. Then the
Prince had mustered his army and moved out and again the Crawler had
struck.

Since then, the two sides had stayed holed up, the Mockers at Mother s,
their well-disguised headquarters, and the Crawler s men at an unknown
hideout in the north docks area. Those sent to pinpoint the exact
location of the Crawler s headquarters failed to return.

The sewers had become a no-man s land, with few daring to come and go
unless driven by the greatest need. Limm would now be lying low, safe at
Mother s, save for two things: a terrible rumor, and a message from an
old friend. Either the rumor or the message alone would have made Limm
huddle in a corner at the Mockers hideout, but the combination of the
two had forced him to act.

Mockers had few friends; the loyalty between thieves was rarely
engendered by affection or comity, but from a greater