Robert Asprin - Shadow Of Sanctuary

She lifted a dimpled finger. 'Ah! But that is the point. The scent on that charm is not mine, and the girl who gave it me wore none at all.' -

'Oh Moonflower, pride of the S'danzo and of Sanctuary! By Ils if the P-G knew of your genius, he'd not have that ugly old charlatan at court, but you, only you! So. By the perfume you know that there was a third woman, who gave this and a coin to another to give to you to give to me.' He wagged his head. 'What a game of roundabout! But what makes you think this thing was given her by still another, to begin with?'

'I saw the coin,' Moonflower said, all kittenish inside a body to block a door or bring groans to a good steed.

'It bore still another scent?'

Moonflower laughed. 'Ah Hanse, Hanse. I know that. Soon you will know too, surely, once you open the walnut shell. Surely it contains a message from someone who wanted no one to know he sent it to you.'

'He?'

'Do you care to make a wager?'

He who was called Shadowspawn clutched the walnut to him in mock terror. With his other hand he clutched his purse theatrically. 'Wager with you about your wisdom? Never! No one has accused me of being stupid.' Well, almost no one, he mentally added, thinking of that burly stranger, Tempus the Hell Hound ... Tempus the ... what?

'Be off with you and open it privily then. You're standing between me and paying clients!'

There were none present, Hanse assured himself before he said, 'In a moment,' and thumb-nailed the brownish wax along the lip-like closure of the walnut shell. He knew Moonflower was frowning, believing that he should be more secretive, but he also knew what he wanted to do. A gesture, merely a gesture. The scrap of extra fine leaf-paper he took out and poked, still folded, into his sash. Pressing the shell closed and thumbing the wax into a semblance of seal, he proffered it to the S'danzo seer who consistently proved that she was no charlatan.

'For Mignureal,' he said, pretending shyness. 'To scent her... her clothing, or something?'

For a moment the flicker of a frown appeared on Moonflower's doughy face, for her big-eyed daughter was quite taken with this dangerous youth from Downwind, whose means of income was no secret. Then she smiled and accepted the scented shell. It swiftly vanished into the vast cleavage of what she called her treasure chest, under her shawl.

'You're such a nice boy, Hanse. I'll give it to her. Now you git, and inspect your message. Maybe some highborn lady wants a bit of dalliance with your handsome self!'

The rangy young man called Shadowspawn had left her then. Smile and even pleasant expression left his face and he swaggered like a Mrsevadan gamecock. Face and walk were part of his image, which none would dare say might stem from insecurity. Still, Moonflower's words would not have made him smile anyhow. He was not handsome and knew it, as he knew that his height was no more than average. The biggest thing about him was his ego - although his lips, which some thought were sensuous, were to him too full. His nickname others had given him. He did not dislike it; his mentor Cudget Swearoath had told him a nickname was good to have - even such a one as 'Swearoath'. Hanse was just a name; Shadowspawn was dramatic, with a romantic and rather sinister sound that appealed to the youth.

He left Moonflower remembering how he had indeed dallied with a beauty of means. Highborn she was not, though she had been from the palace, and richly garbed. Hanse had been touched both in his ego and in his greed, by her attentions. Only later had he discovered that it was not truly he she was interested in. She and a fellow plotter were in the employ of someone back in Ranke -the Emperor himself, perhaps envious or wary of Kadakithis's good looks? - who wanted to discredit and destroy the new Prince-Governor, him they called Kitty-K-at. They had elected to use Hanse in their plot; Hanse had been their dupe! - for a while.

But that was done with, and on this later day he left Moon-flower and swaggered along the streets. His eyes were hooded and the weapons all too obvious on him. Some stepped off the narrow planking of the sidewalk for him, and (quietly) cursed themselves for it. Still, they would do it again. In appearance, all tucked in behind his eyes and abristle with sharp blades, he was 'about as pleasant as gout or dropsy', as a certain merchant had once described him.

Well, he was alive. Both the lovely plotter and her traitorous Hell Hound co conspirator were not. Further, Kadakithis was grateful. And now, as Hanse discovered to his astonishment back in his quarters, the Prince-Governor had actually sent him a note!

Hanse recognized the seal and the scrawl at the bottom from other documents. Since Prince Kadakithis knew that Hanse could not read, the bit of fine paper contained not writing, but clever drawings. The Governor's seal, with a hand extending from it, beckoning to a dark splotch. It was man-shaped - a shadow. Under that was an untidy jumble of (turnip slices?) with straight lines raying up from them. Shadowspawn's frown was a momentary thing. Then he was nodding in comprehension - he hoped.

'The P-G wants me to come calling on him, and here's a promise of reward: shiny coins. He sealed up the message in the walnut shell and gave it to one of his harem, with instructions. No one should see Hanse the thief receive a message from the Prince-Governor, else Hanse's name become Plague and he be avoided the same. So that girl found another, and passed on the walnut and a coin, with her lord's instructions: "Take this to Moonflower for Hanse."'

And she had actually done it, without prying open the shell in an attempt to gain greater treasure than one coin! Well, miracles had happened before, Hanse mused, gazing pensively at the strange message. Had she opened the shell, she'd likely have discarded the note.

Or nervously pressed it back into the shell to scuttle to Moonflower with it. Maybe someone does know that Hanse received a message that shows a beckoning hand from the Rankan seal, and a pile of coin. I hope she's the quiet sort! If I knew who she is, I'd scare her into silence. But then maybe she didn't open it at all...

The point is, I hate to walk into the palace, day or night. How would that look? Me!

Besides, someone inside probably spies for someone out here, and the word would be passed. Hanse just walked right up and in, and he was passed, too! Better watch him; maybe he's a spy for that golden-haired Rankan boy in the palace!

And so Hanse had thought on that, and begun to grin, and then to plan, and out he went to reconnoitre and plan, and now he had broken in, all unseen and unknown, to await his summoner in the latter's own privy apartment!

And now, sitting there waiting, Hanse reflected and contemplated the more, and his face clouded. The prickling in his arms started slowly, and grew.

Unwittingly the tool of that pretty Lirain who had so cleverly seduced or 'seduced' him (with no trouble at all!), he had gained this apartment before, also by night and secretly. That time he had stolen the very symbol of Rankan power, that wand called the Savankh. Eventually all that had turned out, and governor and thief reached an understanding. By way of reward, Hanse was granted pardon for all he might have done - once he had assured the royal youth that he had never slain. (He had, since. It afforded him little enjoyment or pride.) Hanse also came out of that painful adventure with a nice little fortune. Unfortunately it was in two saddlebags currently reposing at the bottom of a well. He hoped those saddlebags were of good leather.

Now he had broken in here twice. This time he had proven that he could enter this apartment without help from inside or out. What then, when Kadakithis gave thought to that?

Hanse had respect for the youthful Rankan's mind. It even possessed a devious quality. Hanse had seen and felt proof of that, when as Kadakithis's unwilling agent he had participated in the ruin of the two plotters. Bourne and Lirain.