"Patrick Welch - Statue of Limitations" - читать интересную книгу автора (Welch Patrick)

Statue of Limitations
a short story
by Patrick Welch

"Most impressed, most impressed indeed," the master of Harjung beamed as he shook my hand. "The
Guild was right about you, Brendell."

I blushed as my arm was nearly torn out of its socket. To be truthful, the Thief's Guild had chosen me for
other reasons, but Tijor Bhen and the council of Harjung didn't need to know that. "It was a most ...
interesting assignment."

"Yes, I'm sure it was. Please, you must tell me how you accomplished it!"

Again I smiled shyly, but this time not from modesty. Guild members are by necessity private about their
methods. But then again this particular contract was by no means a standard one. I debated, then
decided the Guild would not be angered if I revealed at least some of the story. "I really must be leaving;
my transport departs within the hour. And," I pulled out my purse, "I have yet to be compensated."

"That we shall rectify immediately." The council master fumbled a few minutes opening a nearby safe -
one I would have unlocked within seconds - and pulled out a sack of gold coins. "For a job well done,"
he handed it to me.

I quickly counted them and dropped them into my own purse. "Now if you have some wine and some
time, I will briefly recount the details." He did, a most excellent vintage by the way, and therefore I did.
Later that evening, safely aboard my ship and out to sea, I sat in the small lounge with a flask of plebeian
wine and reviewed my fabrication. Once Bhen and the rest of the council learned the truth, they would be
angrily contacting the Guild. I knew I would be in for a session with a Guild Secretary, so I decided to
rehearse for the inevitable.


It was a contract nobody wanted, the Guild Secretary of the Ravenshead office had explained as she sat
me down in her office. "What the council of Harjung is requesting is, well, probably impossible."

"Then refuse it." I had been summoned from nearby Talonrest and was still tired from my ride.

"That is not Guild procedure and you know it, Brendell. Every client, if they have the funds, deserves our
best efforts."

"And yet you are hiring a mere apprentice?"

She smiled for the first time. "The Harjung council need not know that. We will merely explain afterwards
that the contract is too difficult for anyone to succeed."

This was not going in any direction I wanted to follow. "Is it particularly dangerous? Is magic involved?
Assassin's Guild?"

She shook her head. "The object is the problem. They want us, you, to steal the Weeping Nun."

"I'm sorry, never heard of it."