magical rod, Pinch knew, especially since the end glowed with magical fire.
The dwarf never got a chance to use it. Discovering his strength, the rogue heaved the massive dwarf easily from the floor and slammed him against one wall and then the other. It was exhilarating, hurling his tormentor about like a helpless rat. With each crash his grip on the dwarf's windpipe tightened until at last there was a loud crack as the vile priest's neck snapped. Triumphant against his own odds, Pinch hurled the body to the floor.
'Should have killed me in the tower, you bastard!' the rogue snarled in victory.
'Clubs!'
It was Maeve again. The target clear, she was readying another of her massive spells, one that Pinch knew in his heart he would not survive.
He did the only thing he could thing of. He dropped to his knees and threw up his hands in complete submission.
'Maeve-don't! It's me, Pinch!' His voice was a dry screech, ignoble but to the point.
The woman's hands raised-
And then dropped. It had worked. At least Maeve hadn't blasted him to shreds. He could see the four of them in hasty conference.
Finally Therin sidled to the front. 'Move and she'll finish her spell. Understood?'
'Of course, Therin,' Pinch croaked back, his heart in his mouth-if he still had a heart.
'Who are you?' Therin shouted, not coming any closer.
'I told you-Pinch. Manferic switched bodies with me.'
There was another huddled conference at the far end of the passage.
'Impossible. That's bull-'
'It happened.'
'Prove it.'
Prove it? How in the hells was Pinch supposed to do that? He thought for some secret that only he would know. 'Sprite,' he finally called out, 'remember Elturel, in the Dwarf's Piss Pot last summer? What did you do with those emeralds you lifted off of Therin?'
There was a hushed silence at the other end. 'Emeralds?' a voice, Sprite, finally squeaked. 'What emeralds?'
'You remember, don't you Therin,' Pinch rasped back, 'those big ones that you lifted off that jeweler from Amn?'
'He stole them off me?'
'He's lying-I wouldn't nip you, Therin!' Sprite squeaked again.
'Well then how the hells did he know?'
'I'll bet that lich tortured it out of old Pinch,' the halfling replied. It was hard to say how much of that was in good faith and how much was a lie to save his own hide from Therin's wrath.
Damnation, this wasn't working, Pinch thought. It was a bad choice of example. He needed something stronger.
'Maeve!' he bellowed as best this wretched husk allowed him. It was getting passing uncomfortable on his knees, even without the feeling of pain. He'd never been on his knees to anyone before and he didn't know as it was likely in the future. It was undignified and crass and that bothered him, but he was able to swallow it so long as it kept him alive. Pinch, master thief, was a practical man in no hurry to die. If saving his life meant being on his knees, then so be it. Dead men had a hard time getting revenge, some would say, although Pinch wasn't so sure in this case. Manferic had made a fine job of it.
'Maeve, probe my mind, if that's what it'll take to convince you.'
A third quick conference took place. There was considerable debate on this one. Finally, Therin, clearly acting as the new regulator in his absence, shouted, 'No trickery-we've got bows and we've got a priest!'
'No trickery.'
Pinch closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and waited. Just because exposing his mind was his only hope of proving himself, it didn't mean he wanted her to know all his secrets. Without really knowing how, he tried to bar certain areas of his mind from her prying.
When she came, it was a tickle like what he'd felt under Manferic's gaze, although her scan did not carry with it the painful itch of the lich's hateful will. Pinch did his best to stay calm under the scan. He tried to think about the drinking bouts, the jobs they'd pulled, even Therin's hanging where she'd played an important part. Most of all he put it into his mind to increase her share of the take. Certainly a bribe wouldn't hurt in a time like this.
Like the devil in all things though, those thoughts that he'd never entertained more than once in a year of fortnights now all decided to make their appearance, or so it seemed. Things he'd never said and regretted, cheats he'd pulled on his own gang, even the squeals he'd made to get rid of his foes all chose to surface now. Maeve was reading a mindful, there was no doubt, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
At last the tickling stopped. She withdrew her mind and let him rest. Not that his dead muscles felt strained. What rest did a lich need or ever take? If it slept, the fierce will that kept it alive might waver and fade. If that happened there would be far fewer liches in the world.
All he could do was wait nervously for Maeve's decision.
And she damn well took her time. He knew he was Pinch and he knew she'd read enough of him to know that, but she was lingering on her pronouncement. No doubt, he raged to himself, she was enjoying having him on the spit. If he ever got out of this, he'd have to make sure she gained no profit from the venture.
'It's Pinch all right,' Maeve said with a touch of awe. 'I ain't sure what happened, but I know his fashion. It's him.'
'That… thing is him?' Therin drawled, clearly filled with disbelief.
'He knows garbage what only Pinch would know, like how we fetched your body after the hanging in Elturel. More than that, too, like jobs we've pulled where there ain't nobody who knows them and all. I tell you, it's Pinch.'
Therin looked back at the kneeling lich-thing. 'Pinch, that really you?'
' 'Swounds, it's me, you big hay-headed Gur! I should've left you as that fortune-teller's stooge for all the good you're doing me.'
Sprite and Maeve both looked at Therin with keen interest. It had always been a question between them just where the old master had found the big Gur.
'Well met, then, I guess,' Therin hailed, face reddened at his secret. 'Come over-but slowly, old man.'
Lissa looked at the lot with a highly jaundiced eye, more than suspicious of their easy familiarity with this creature called Pinch. They talked all too freely of jobs and hangings to be anything like honest folk. She'd always had suspicions, but every time they arose, she'd convinced herself or let others convince her otherwise. Now, she finally realized, she'd been blind to it all this time.
'You're all a lot of thieves!'
'What did you imagine we were-lousy prophets?' Therin snapped.
'You lied to me!'
'We lie to everyone, miss,' Sprite explained with glee. 'It's our stock and our trade. Don't feel bad for being taken. We'd be pretty poor rascals if we couldn't fool anyone.'
'Sprite's right, dearie,' Maeve added to the chorus. 'Consider yourself honored into our company. Pinch called upon you in particular for aid, so he must think highly of you-and it's Pinch now we've got to see to.'
'Aye,' Sprite echoed. He looked at the moldering form that shuffled closer. 'What happened, Master Pinch?' There was still a hesitancy in his voice, lest this be some hideous creature approaching.
'Manferic,' the corpse croaked. 'He traded bodies with me-though I don't think that was his full intention.'
'What happened?' Maeve demanded, magical business making her sharply attentive.
As quickly and clearly as he could, Pinch explained the course of his meeting with Manferic. He had no idea what clues were needed to restore his body and so, against his true nature, he spared nothing in the telling. When it was done, Pinch croaked, 'Ladies, tell me. How do-'
'I'm not sure I should even help you, thief,' Lissa cut in, still rankling at her discovery.
'Leave me and you leave Manferic. Would your conscience feel better by placing a lich on the throne, priestess? What would the Morninglord think of that?' Pinch snapped. He didn't have time for this. That he knew
