"Andre Norton - Brother To Shadows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

of how much this one needed what he, Zarn, controlled and he had no doubts he would
find the man still there when he returned.

The house in which they had met had once been the town hall of a minor noble. Now it
was cut into a warren of smaller rooms and narrow passages which might have
bewildered any visitor who had not been furnished with a guide. Zarn turned right, left,
and came to a room which had a second door on the outer world. The occupant there was
already looking for him as he entered.

"Welcome, Lady." The merchant sketched a bow towards the cloaked figure. She could
have been of any rank since that covering, though of good glas-wool, was of drab color
and without ornamentation.

In answer to his greeting she inclined her hooded head but did not speak.

"You have had the message; you know what is to be done," he continued. "Remember,
this one was high-rated. That renegade Master made of him a true Shadow. He must be
taken so that which he now carries may be brought to us."

For the second time she nodded. Then spoke in turn.

"Honorable One, there is already laid on me a mission."

"Yes, but this can be accomplished before that is advanced. This is the oath-order."

"It shall be." Her voice was low but steady. Without any farewell she went out the other
door into the open street beyond. Zarn rubbed one hand against another as if between
them he was grinding something into dust. She would succeed of course; was she not the
best he had ever seen in action? Another mission and perhaps they would have other
plans for herтАФplans for the good of all.

He returned to his fuming visitor his mind fully at ease. With such weapons at one's
command one was already the victor in any game. Now to business with this off-worlder
and those behind him, and those behind themтАФ Zarn speculated for a moment as to how
far that line did actually reach.

There was no wall nor gates to hedge in the sprawl of the new city at the port. Though the
merchants and administrators, the tourists (a few of them were coming now, mainly for
the larox hunting in the west) and other law-abiding inhabitants were housed in five- and
six-story buildings, some even with gardens, but all contained in barriers manned by
private guards very much in evidence.

There was no place here for a penniless man, Jofre understood well; he pushed on at the
steady gait of someone who knew exactly his goal toward the fringe where were the
hurriedly built buildings put up after First Contact near a hundred years ago now. These
had been "quickies" in the workman's tongue of that day, shoddily built, and never
maintained past the bare necessity of keeping a roof on and not allowing too many holes
in the doors.

Many of these housed traders too, those who sold a wealth of intoxicants from both