Cross-Currents

Welcome back to Sanctuary, the dangerous, degenerate, and altogether engrossing city that serves as the background for stories by some of fantasy's most outstanding writers: C. J. Cherryh, Andrew J. Offutt, Diane Duane, Janet Morris and others.

Visit that seediest town in the Rankan Empire, where, if you haven't already made their acquaintance, you'll meet the fascinating characters who live and die by murder, mayhem and magic. Enter the world of:

• One-Thumb, the unsavory owner of and bartender at the Vulgar Unicorn;
• Enas Yorl, a wizard cursed with eternal shape-changing (he lost a fight with another wizard);
• Prince Kadakithis, the well-meaning but often ineffectual Rankan governor;
• Tempus, a Hell-Hound (one of the elite royal guard), who is a servant of a particularly bloodthirsty god;
• Illyra, one of the gypsy-like S'danzo, a fortune-teller whose talents reveal a dreadful secret;
• Ischade, a witch whose love is fatal;
• Lalo, an artist whose portraits are of souls;

and other thieves, harlots, magicians and victims of the decadence that is Santuary.

Follow these characters through the twisty, perilous alleys of Sanctuary in 20 exciting stories including:

• "Exercise in Pain", by Robert Lynn Asprin, in which Jubal the slaver, crippled in battle, pins his hopes on a curious poison-sucking wizard.
• "A Fugitive Art", by Diana L. Paxson, in which Lalo, the painter whose portraits reveal true souls, battles an assassin from the Rankin Court.
• "Godson", by Andrew J. Offutt, in which the thief Shadowspawn learns sword fighting to help one god vanquish another.

As these tales unfold, mutterings of war come from the Wizardwall to the north, strange, fish-eyed invaders arrive from the west, and the gods battle each other for dominance over the fates of all.