Thieves World 04 – Asprin, Robert

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It had been a long time since Hakiem, Sanctuary’s oldest storyteller, had visited that section of town known only as the Fisherman’s Quarters, but he still knew the way. Not much had changed: the stalls with their flimsy awnings

to keep the sun off the day’s catch; the boats bottom up along the pier and, on the beach, a few nets hung for drying and mending. All was the same-only more

faded and worn-like the people… like the rest of the town.

Hakiem had watched Sanctuary’s decline over the years; watched the economy dry

up as the citizens became more desperate and vicious. He had watched and

chronicled with the detached eye of a professional tale-spinner.

though, like this-when a prolonged absence made the deterioration more apparent

to the eye than the day-to-day erosion of his more favored haunts, he felt a pang of sorrow not unlike that he felt the day he visited his father and realized the man was dying. He had cut that visit short and never returned, preferring in his then-youth to preserve the memories of his sire in the joyful strength of his prime. Hakiem had always regretted that decision and, now that

the town he had adopted and grown to love was in its death throes, he was determined not to repeat his earlier mistakes by abandoning it. He would stay