"Thieves World - Beyond The Veil" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

Morris, Janet - Beyond the Veil



BEYOND THE VEIL

JANET MORRIS



Contents

Book One : Death in Tyse
Book Two: Masters Of Mystery
Book Three: Witch's Work
Book Four: In the Shadow of the Wall
Book Five: Beyond Wizardwall








Book One:
DEATH IN TYSE


Two Rankan couriers rode into Tyse three hours apart on the last day of summer.
Neither was aware of the other; both carried the same information. The parties
in the Imperial Rankan court who had dispatched them to seek out a man known as
the Riddler needed to be sure' their message would be delivered.
The sun was setting when the first courier, who went by the name of Belize,
urged his exhausted horse the last few miles up Broadway and into the souk,
Tyse's open-air bazaar. Where the horse traders had their stalls he was supposed
to meet the Rankan agent who would lead him to the Riddler.
But no one had warned Belize of the curfew. They had warned him not to go to
Embassy Row and check in with his countrymen. They had warned him not to trust
the Rankan intelligence chief, Grillo, and thus effectively barred him from
making use of his upcountry peers and doing things the easy way. They had warned
him not to depend on the mageguild network or on anything but the evidence of
his senses. Imperial Ranke was beleaguered and embattled from within and
without; every diplomat and cabinet functionary who favored peace over this
protracted and expensive war with the Mygdonian Alliance was well aware that
summary execution awaited anyone caught conspiring against the EmpireЧeven to
bring peace to it.
In the souk's maze, he dismounted and led his blowing, sweat-drenched mount
through a stinking, narrow-eyed throng hurrying home with the days' profits,
bargains, or spoils. Everywhere, stalls were being shut and locked. Pickpockets