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Careless self-defence leading to the death of an innocent had been the charge Four hundred docks, halved Normally, Shurq could have paid the fine and that would have been that Alas, her arguold that had inexplicably vanished from Shurq’s cache Without a dock to her name, she had been marched down to the canal

Even then, she was a fit woeable – had not the retrieval rope snagged on the spines of a forty-stone lupe-fish that had surfaced for a look at the swi Shurq with it

Lupe fish, while rare in the canal, ate only men Never women No-one knehy this was the case

Shurq Elalle drowned

But, as it turned out, there was dead and then there was dead Unbeknownst to her, Shurq had been cursed by one of her past victims A curse fully paid for and sanctified by the Es filled with foul water, though her heart stopped, as did all other discernible functions of the body and mind, there she stood when finally retrieved from the canal, sheathed in mud, eyes dull and the whites browned by burst vessels and lifeless blood, all in all most miserable and sadly bemused

Even the lawless and the ho, in fact Walking past as if she was in truth a ghost, a dead h its pallor was noticeably unhealthy Nor were her reactions and deft abilities in any way diminished She could speak See Hear Think None of which i found her where Tehol had said she’d be found In an alley behind a bordello Listening, as she did every night, to thefrom the s above

‘Shurq Elalle’

Listless, ive no pleasure,’ she said

‘Alas, neither do I, these days I am here to deliver to you an indefinite contract from my master’

‘And ould that be?’

‘Not yet, I’ work, Shurq’

‘What need have I for riches?’

‘Well, that would depend on their substance, I’d iine’

She stepped out fro ‘And what does your otiable’

‘Does he know I’rets’

‘Does he?’

‘No, I made that up’

‘No-one hires me any more’

‘That is why he knew you would be available’

‘No-one likes my company’

‘Well, a bath wouldn’t hurt, but he’s prepared to make allowances’