Part 4 (1/2)
”It's interesting,” Knucklebones insisted ”It's just- it's been so long since you talked at all”
Sunbright nodded absently, plucked grass and sucked the steh I've been poor company lately It's just that I need et on with my life I'm as dead as an uprooted tree Not much co, just tried to keep the Yet she had no plans of her own, and his were frustrated, so there seemed little to discuss
Then the ood forand testing myself”
”I don't want-” Knucklebones's temper flared, but she bit her words back She was tired of his singing the praises of a dead lover Still, better he talked, and she suffered in silence ”Tell me about her”
”Well she was a lot like you”
”What?” This was news ”How can she, a high-caste elven warrior fro like ht shook his head ”It's not outward appearances, it's inner Green had courage, not only to face terrible odds, but to face herself too To force herself into battle, or the dark, or the unknown As you do I so admire your spirit I can face polar bears and ice storms and ice worms and starvation and cold, yet I was raised by s slowly, and coddled when I ed to survive, abandoned and alone in the underworld of Karsus, I can't i heart to boot Greenas the salowed under the coht loved her not as a pale imitation of the elf erous environment For the first time, the thief felt sympathy and interest in this elven warrior she'd never met, but she'd still prefer he concentrate on a live lover But so did people pine for things they couldn't have
Like a tribe And a hoeese and the enclaves fly south for the winter”
”Hunh?” Knucklebones craned her head around, scanned the sky where Sunbright pointed High overhead drifted an invertedcity Enclaves drifted north in summer and south in winter ”Oh That's Ioulaunize” In three hundred years it hadn't changed much
”And in three hundred and fifty-five years,” Sunbright added, ”it'll fall and shatter, scattering build- ings and people like an anthill kicked apart”
Thief and shaman watched the city drift It went slower than the wind, for the ine, could drive it in any direction decreed by the archwizards and city council
The pair watched the city-et up there
Perhaps we could see the whole world, look down and seearrows at it” He joked because h in the air in Castle Delia, and then Karsus Enclave, set his sto He'd never been coazed wistfully on the city, for so” world too wide She often longed for the cozy confines of the city, its varied buildings and parks and houses, the tangled caves and tunnels and warrens that honeycoht's jest penetrated, the woman mused, ”That's not such a foolish notion ”
”What?” Sunbright frowned ”Looking down frouards would never let us board an airboat”
”But you can see the world from up there,” Knucklebones insisted ”Not directly, but so up is no problem Every door has a key Trust a sewer rat”
”No! No, I say!” But it was too late, Sunbright saw the floating enclave reflected in Knucklebones's one eye He wished he'd kept his ethands, Knucklebones grabbed Sunbright's chin and forelock, and jerked The barbarian yelped as his ears scraped between stacks of grain bags
”Aggh! Lady of Silver, I could have done that!”
Gingerly he felt his ears, testing for blood
”Cheap bribe, bad ride,” she told him flatly ”Now hush up”
”I can't hear you My ears are shredded Hoe get out of here?”
Knucklebones pointed to a tiny sunlithigh up in the deserted warehouse ”Scale the wall,”
she said, ”slip through, and hope there's so soft to jump on outside”
”Pande, Knucklebones led the way She felt cocky and happy now that they'd mire, she'd found a tavern, then a boatrain bound for Ioulaum There were many shi+p south The tipsy boat over the ”fare,” to pack theht had claht sky, drifted, tacked, dropped and lurched in capricious air pockets, and finally docked, a mile in the air, at the spidery airdocks of Ioulaum After his boat was towed into a warehouse, the boat the requisite paperwork-leaving the boat temporarily ”deserted”
The thief scaled the wooden ith fingers and toes, chuckling at how easy and familiar it felt, slid out the , and circled to open a door so Sunbright could walk through ”Sissy!” she teased
”Sewer rat!”
”Hush up! I s down daht splashed and stamped and huffed to keep up As she listened at a corner, he asked, ”You've never been here before, correct?
So how do you know your way around?”
”There are ot hot we studied the was practical”
”But where are we bound?”
”Thieves' Quarter”
”How do you know there is one?”
She laughed, low and lad to hear her happy It had been a long tirettably, that was his fault He'd have to rief he'd caused her For now, he plodded along without coh, to stay cal a mile in the air unnerved hi to fist-sized chunks from his mind's eye True, the island wouldn't be destroyed for over three centuries, but still he felt it hung by a thread
Through the warehouse district they tripped, avoiding city guards and night crews and dogs, soht felt the yawning gap kiss his quaking knees But finally they turned inhere lights and roistering marked taverns and food shops where workers wended after hours Knucklebones told Sunbright to sit tight while she scouted The barbarian propped his rump in a niche, folded his arms, but left his ears awake, and napped
Cat-quiet, Knucklebones faded through shadows, circling buildings, and hunting the darker spots
Her part-elven night vision was sharper than a human's, and since e Sure enough, she spied pri
They passed an alley perfect for ambush and, as she expected, were hooked into the shadows like dazed trout Scanning for onlookers, Knucklebones skittered along a building front, down the side and around, to catch the assailants in the rear
The thieves were good, she noted They'd dumped the sailors in the alley, sh to stun theuard-rifled their purses and boots in seconds, then charged down the alley, quick to flee before anyone soughtcomrades