The lich roared loud and long as he padded from the chamber and climbed the stairs.

THIEVES" REWARD.

Mary H. Herbert.

The water of Lake Ashane lay far below Teza"s feet, as hard and dark as a sheet of black gla.s.s. No wave rippled its smoothness; nothing could be seen beneath its glistening surface to indicate the depth. Not that depth really mattered to Teza. She could not swim, and no one had ever measured the bottomless depths of the Lake of Tears.

The young woman forced her terror back and stared up the length of her outstretched arms to the frayed bit of rope that prevented her from plunging into the lake so far below.

"Please," she whispered in agony. Her arms felt like melting lead, and her body seemed to grow heavier by the second. There was nothing beneath her feet to catch her weight-nothing but air and that terrible fall to the water.

Teza stilled a sob. She hated water.

The young woman looked higher into the eyes of the creature who dangled her so carelessly over the edge of the high cliff. He was blacker than night"s shadow, hungrier than a shark, and more beautiful than the most exquisite horse Teza had ever seen. Some people said the rare predatory water horses, the aughiskies, did not exist, but Teza would have been delighted to trade places with any of those doubters just to prove them wrong.

A tense stillness closed around her. There was only her hoa.r.s.e breathing, which rasped like a threnody behind the beating of her terrified heart. She sensed a scream well inside her from the depths of her mind, and it spread outward to her heart, lungs, throat, and mouth until she nearly burst with the primal terror within her.

The aughisky"s eyes glowed green with their own cruel fire. Deliberately he shook the rope attached to his bridle.

Teza slipped downward. Her face turned white, and her features screwed into a mask of panic.

Suddenly he wrenched the rope out of her hands, and Teza began to fall.

The scream so tightly held burst loose in a horrible, rending shriek of protest. "NO!"

Teza bolted awake to the sound of her own voice. Blackness enveloped her, and she tore frantically at the blanket that covered her head. Panting, wet with sweat, she scrambled out of her rough bed and crouched like a cornered beast by the embers of her campfire.

Close beside her, head hung low to see her, stood the aughisky, blacker than the night around him. His large eyes gleamed a ghastly light, and he watched her with an uncanny intelligence she found disconcerting. He snorted, a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

"Oh, G.o.ds of all!" Teza gasped and collapsed to a sitting position by her fire. She heaped wood on the embers until the flames roared, but the heat and light did little to dispel the cold fear that settled in her bones from that terrible nightmare. It had seemed so real!

What am I going to do? she thought. Over a year ago, she had fled Immilmar with a price on her head and a stolen aughisky in her keeping. Since that time, she had hidden in the wild lands-far from the city she loved and the lake that nourished her horse. They had sc.r.a.ped out a meager living, but Teza was sick of the struggle, and she could see the aughisky was not thriving.

What he felt about their circ.u.mstances, she didn"t know. She never knew what he was thinking. Teza usually had a close rapport with horses, and she loved this glorious black animal with a pa.s.sion she had never felt for another beast. But he remained aloof, unfriendly at times, watchful, and distrustful. She knew he could not leave her voluntarily, nor would he really try to drown and eat her because of the spell of binding she had placed on him with a hippomane. Yet he always seemed so cold and distant.

Something cool brushed her cheek. Teza looked up from her fire and saw with dismay snowflakes swirling around her camp. It was early in the month of Uktar, and already winter approached. Winter the year before had been a miserable series of frozen hungry nights and empty hungry days.

She turned to study the aughisky. There were real risks taking a water horse that drowned and ate humans to Immilmar. On the other hand, what was worse? The threat of exposure and imprisonment or the very real danger of freezing if she spent another winter in the wilderness? Her world was the city with its back streets, busy ports, markets, and people to keep her company. Surely her minor crimes had been forgotten by now.

The wind gusted through her camp, driving snow before it with icy-sharp teeth. Teza shivered. "Oh, to Thay with it all. I"m going home!"

Teza! You black-haired catamount! Where have you been?" A long-familiar voice boomed to her over the raucous afternoon noise of the busy tavern.

Teza looked up from a flagon of huild, and a grin spread over her long, swarthy face. "Rafbit!" she exclaimed, acknowledging a friend she had not seen for a year.She watched with pleasure as a s.h.a.ggy, slightly disheveled half-elf wove his way through the crowd toward her.

Slender as a willow branch and sinuous as a weasel, he always reminded Teza of a cat in the way he could move through a room light-footed, silent, causing barely a ripple in the crowd as he pa.s.sed. That ability, as well as delicately etched features and blue-black hair, were inherited from his moon-elf mother. His voice, Teza firmly believed, was bequeathed solely by his father, a Rashemi berserker of prodigious skill and temper.

She slid over to make room for him at the bench near the roaring fire.

"The last time I saw you," he said heartily, dropping down beside her, "you were packing your worldly goods before the Fang found your door. Something about the Huhrong"s prized stallion turning up in the Fair Street Horse Market?"

Teza winced. The volume of Rafbit"s talk drowned out the voices around them and caused heads to turn their way.

"Whisper, Rafbit," she reminded him.

The half-elf grinned good-naturedly. He was used to such advice. "So where have you been?"

"Living among the wild things," Teza replied. She pulled a long swallow from her flagon to savor the fiery taste ofthejhuild. "By the cloak, I missed that."

"When did you come back?"

The thief did not twitch from her pleasant contemplation of the firewine, but her senses jumped alert. She knew Rafbit well enough to hear the slightly tensed tone in his words. There was more than simple curiosity in his question.

She replied casually, wondering what he was about. "About two days ago."

Rafbit lowered his voice even further until he actually reached an undertone. "Teza, you are a gift from Mask!

Your return couldn"t have come at a better time. How about a job?"

She moved then, deliberately pulling a plate of bread and sjorl cheese closer to break off several pieces. While she ate, she studied the man beside her.

Rafbit was an old friend, not a close one and not one she would willingly trust with her life, but still a friend. Her problem was she could never entirely trust his motives. A streak of self-serving maliciousness ran through his character, and it sometimes landed other people in serious trouble. She stared intently into his face, but all she could see was excited query.

"What sort of job?" she asked mildly.

"Come to my place." He hustled Teza out the back door into the bitter blue twilight.

Winter had come with a certainty since Teza returned to Immilmar, bringing snow and freezing winds. People dressed in layers of wool, leather, and furs and hurried more than normal through the busy streets of the Iron Lord"s capital.

The tavern Teza and Rafbit had left was a tiny place tucked away in a back alley in the lowest, dirtiest part of the city. It was a place frequented mostly by patrons who had moved beyond the law and did not wish to be bothered by the guardians of the Huhrong"s peace. Thus, it was very unusual to see a horse standing against the wall near the exit.

Especially a horse of such magnificence and color.

Rafbit"s eyes widened when he saw it, and he chuckled. "You"re slipping, Teza. Inside taking your ease when this gorgeous animal is out here looking for a new master."

"He"s not looking for a master," Teza said dryly. "He"s looking for a meal."

"A meal? That horse doesn"t look hungry. I"ve never seen a beast look as healthy as that one." He walked toward the black animal slowly but confidently.

Teza agreed. To her relief, the aughisky had flourished since they returned to the environs of Lake Ashane, and now his glossy sable coat and perfect conformation made him an eye-catcher in a city where most of the horses were short, s.h.a.ggy work beasts. Already several of her compet.i.tors had disappeared. "Be careful," she added, a warning to both the half-elf and the aughisky.

Rafbit reached out to clasp the horse"s bridle, the only tack he wore, but the aughisky flung his head away. His long teeth shone against his black muzzle, and his eyes glowed with a strange greenish fire.

Rafbit fell back, swearing. "G.o.ds, what that beast needs is a tenday with a horse-breaker."

"No," Teza sighed. "All he needs is understanding." She whistled softly. Prancing and snorting in the cold air, the water horse came immediately to her side.

Rafbit was astonished. "He"s yours? Where on Toril did you get such as him?"

"I earned him," Teza said, smiling in memory of the Witch of Rashemen and the tricks they had played on each other.

"Well, I"ve never seen anything like him!" the half-elf marveled. "Will you sell him?"

The young woman put her arm around the horse"s neck-a caress he rarely seemed to like-and answered shortly, "No."

Rafbit nodded once, but his eyes strayed to the horse often as he led Teza and her aughisky to a ramshackle building near the warehouse district by the busy docks. He ushered her into his quarters, stoked the fire in his brazier, and came arrow-straight to the point.

"I am organizing a thieves" guild in Immilmar, and I need a second officer I can trust."

Teza couldn"t have been more surprised if he had asked her to marry him. "A guild!" she snorted. "In Immilmar?

The Huhrong would have you hanging in the gibbets in days."

Rafbit"s gem-blue eyes sparkled with excitement. "Not necessarily. What a guild needs to survive in a city like this is subtlety, patience, and a careful hand to control the thieves and their activities."Rafbit was a burglar, and a good one, who had never been directly linked to any of his successful crimes. But the leader of an organized den of thieves? It made Teza laugh. "Subtlety? Patience?" she mocked. "From you?"

Her friend grinned, unoffended, and leaned toward her. "That"s why I need you. I have talked to most of the thieves in Immilmar, and they are interested, but I need someone to help organize the guild and its functions; to set up a system of rewards, opportunities, and arbitration. To find safehouses, set a watch on the guards, select suitable targets..."

"And what are you going to do?" Teza interrupted sarcastically. "Count your percentage?"

"Well, of course, any member will have to pay dues for guild services. But there will be plenty of work for two."

Teza had to admit she was intrigued. An organized thieves guild would be an advantage to the city"s popula- tion of rogues . .. unfortunately . . . "There is still the Iron Lord. He will not tolerate organized crime in Rashemen."

"He will if the organization does not flaunt its presence. We will keep the guild small, make it open only to those who can prove their worth."

"Now, how are you going to do that?" she demanded.

"A test of skill. Any thief regardless of age, s.e.x, or origin can join as long as he or she can pa.s.s a test."

Teza"s eyes narrowed. "Does that include me?"

"Umm . .. yes," Rafbit hesitated. "It"s only fair."

Teza jumped to her feet. "You ask me to join your little light-fingered squad, but you expect me to prove my worth?" she cried, her voice rising dangerously with every word.

"A mere formality!" Rafbit hastened to calm her. "It"s really only to rea.s.sure our patron. He should be aware of your value to the guild. Just as I am."

The horse-thief stilled, her long legs apart, her arms crossed. "Patron?" she growled.

"Yes! He is our key to success. A judicial authority with a penchant for collecting rare gems. In exchange for any "collectibles" we might find, he will be our ears and eyes in the Iron Lord"s court."

Teza"s glance narrowed in speculation. "I want to meet him first."

Rafbit shook her hand. "Done."

The meeting went better than Teza had antic.i.p.ated. For one thing, she didn"t really expect there to be a patron.

But two days after Rafbit"s invitation, she and the half-elf met a short, powerfully built man cloaked in rich snowcat furs and quiet self-importance.

The official acknowledged her ident.i.ty with a lift of his thick eyebrow. They talked briefly. The man and Teza examined each other from head to boot, and both were satisfied with what they saw.

When the meeting was over, Teza turned to Rafbit. She was still wary of his motives in this venture, yet the pres- ence of a patron in the Huhrong"s courts put a different light on the matter. She was willing to take the next step and see what happened.

"What is the test you had in mind for me?" Had she not been watching her step in the muddy snow, she might have seen Rafbit"s mouth move in the quick, hungry grimace of a stoat on the hunt.

"It"s simple really. I have a customer who lost a particular item and is willing to pay for its recovery."

Teza did not accept other people"s use of "simple" without explanation. "What, exactly, and where is it?"

"A book. In the library of Lord Duronh."

Teza stopped in midstride. "Are you serious? A book? That"s ridiculous. I"m a horse-thief! You"re the burglar."

"If you are going to be my officer," Rafbit explained patiently, "you need to excel in many skills. Your ability to steal anything four-legged is legendary. So is your talent with disguises. You"ve also been known to pick pockets, purses, and bags. But can you break into a house and steal something useful? That is your test."

Teza, ignoring the flattery, conceded he had a point. Yet she couldn"t help asking, "Who"s testing you?"

To her surprise, Rafbit"s pale face turned whiter and the gleam went out of his eyes. "I have already been tested,"

he growled, and he would not say any more.

That was why, three days later, in the deep of a cold, still night, Teza rode the aughisky into the quiet streets of the city. She breathed a silent prayer to Mask, the G.o.d of rogues and thieves. Her enterprise that night would be to the G.o.d"s advantage, so she hoped he was paying attention.

He had certainly helped in one fashion. A dank, thick fog rolled over the city from Lake Ashane, turning the darkness into a solid ma.s.s. Only the aughisky, bred in the black waters of Ashane, seemed at home in the dense wet air. He picked his way unerringly through the streets at Teza"s direction, past the Huhrong"s towering palace, and into the gentle hills of the wealthier section of the city, where the houses were larger and surrounded by their own ornate walls.

The water horse turned at Teza"s cue onto a path that led between two high walls and down a steep bank to a river. The river was a small one that wended its way to Ashane from the east, just slow enough and deep enough for pleasure craft. Many of the houses built along its bank had docks or boathouses.

Lord Duronh"s residence had one, too, although the lord had gone one step further. He had dug a cavern into the high bank below his house and built a dock for his crafts, where they were protected from all but the most frigid weather.

Teza thought this underground boathouse would be her best entrance into the house. Any guard left standing over one small back door on a night like this would not be expecting trouble.

As silent as a black shadow, the water horse carried her downstream through the fog to the broad opening of Duronh"s boathouse. Teza shuddered at the sight of that dark river lapping at her knees, but the aughisky made noattempt to drop her or carry her into deeper water. He worked his way around the lord"s small boats and deposited Teza on the wooden dock. With a sigh of fervent relief, she patted him and eased farther along the dark dock toward what she hoped was the stairs.

The darkness was absolute in the cavern, so Teza silently opened a small bag she wore buckled around her waist and pulled out her most useful thieves" tool: a pair of night gla.s.ses. She had bought them from a wandering wizard for a horrendous sum, but they had paid her back a hundredfold with their usefulness. She slid them on, and immediately the night slipped into focus. Although the gla.s.ses made everything look red, their vision was remarkably clear.

Swiftly she found the stairs leading to the rear of the house and mounted them to the entrance. The door was a heavy affair of oak and iron, but its lock yielded easily to the pick Rafbit had loaned her. Just inside, she saw the first guard leaning against the wall. As she had hoped, he dozed over his weapons.

Teza drew another useful item from her belt pack: a small circle of fabric permeated with a fast-acting sedative. She rubbed a little spit into the cloth to activate the drug and, before it could affect her, stuck it to the skin of the napping guard. In seconds he slumped into a deeper sleep.