Tales from the vulgar unicorn- Thieves World 02 Read Online Free PDF Page A

however.
    'Masha?' he said softly.
    By then she'd recovered her wind. She wriggled out from under the dead man, jerked the dagger from the windpipe, and started to get up. The man said, in a foreign accent, 'You can put your knife away, my dear. I didn't save you just to kill you.'
    'I thank you, stranger,' she said, 'but keep your distance anyway.'
    Despite the warning, he took two steps towards her. Then she knew who he was. No one else in Sanctuary stank so of rancid butter.
    'Smhee,' she said, equally softly.
    He chuckled. 'I know you can't see my face. So, though it's against my religious convictions, I will have to take a bath and quit smearing my body and hair with butter. I am as silent as a shadow, but what good is that talent when anyone can smell me a block away?'
    Keeping her eyes on him, she stopped and cleaned her dagger on the dead man's robe.
    'Are you the one who's been following me?' she said. She straightened up. He hissed with surprise, then said, 'You saw me?'
    'No. But I knew someone was dogging me.'
    'Ah! You have a sixth sense. Or a guilty conscience. Come! Let's get away before someone comes along.'
    'I'd like to know who these men are ... were.'
    'They're Raggah,' Smhee said. 'There are two others fifty yards from here, lookouts, I suppose. They'll be coming soon to find out why these two haven't shown up with you.'
    That shocked her even more than the attack.
    'You mean the purple mage wants we? Why?'
    'I do not know. Perhaps he thinks as so many others do. That is, that Benna told you more than you have said he did. But come! Quickly!'
    'Where?'
    'To your place. We can talk there, can't we?'
    They walked swiftly towards her building. Smhee kept looking back, but the place where they had killed the two men was no longer visible. When they got to the door, however, she stopped.
    'If I knock on the door for the keeper, the Raggah might hear it,' she whispered. 'But I have to get in. My daughter is very sick. She needs the medicine I got from Dr Nadeesh.'
    'So that's why you were at his home,' Smhee said. 'Very well. You bang on the door. I'll be the rearguard.'
    He was suddenly gone, moving astonishingly swift and silently for such a fat man. But his aroma lingered.
    She did as he'suggested, and presently Shmurt came grumbling to the door and unbolted it. Just as she stepped in she smelled the butter more strongly, and Smhee was inside and pushing the door shut before the startled doorkeeper could protest.
    'He's all right,' Masha said.
    Old Shmurt peered with runny eyes at Smhee by the light of his oil lamp. Even with good vision, however, Shmurt couldn't see Smhee's face. It was covered with a green mask.
    Shmurt looked disgusted.
    'I know your husband isn't much,' he croaked. 'But taking up with this foreigner, this tub of rotten butter ... shewawl'
    'It's not what you think,' she said indignantly. Smhee said, 'I must take a bath. Everyone knows me at once.'
    'Is Eevroen home?' Masha said.
    Shmurt snorted and said, 'At this early hour? No, you and your stinking lover will be safe.'
    'Dammit!' Masha said. 'He's here on business!'
    'Some business!'
    'Mind your tongue, you old fart!' Masha said. 'Or I'll cut it out!'Shmurt slammed the door to his room behind him. He called, 'Whore! Slut!
    Adulteress!'
    Masha shrugged, lit her lamp, and went up the steps with Smhee close behind her. Wallu looked very surprised when the fat man came in with her daughter.
    'Who is this?'
    'Someone can't identify me?' Smhee swi. 'Does she have a dead nose?'
    He removed his mask.
    'She doesn't get out much,' Masha said. She hurried to Kheem, who lay sleeping on her rag pile. Smhee took off his cloak, revealing thin arms and legs and a body like a ball of cheese. His shirt and vest, made of some velvety material speckled with glittering sequins, clung tightly to his trunk. A broad leather belt encircled his paunch, and attached to it were two scabbards containing knives, a third from which poked the end of a bamboo pipe, and