Master of Thieves by Michael Dalton

Author:Michael Dalton [Dalton, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Qadira walked through the Grand Market, feeling an unfamiliar sense of freedom. She no longer needed to watch for pockets to pick or purses to cut. It was strange. For so long, she had a quota to meet, an income she needed to produce each day.

Now she was beyond that, at last.

She understood why nearly all guild thieves started in the Market District. It was not to teach skills at picking pockets. That could be done in the basement of the apprentices’ dormitory, as indeed it was done every night.

It was to teach observation skills, caution, and discipline. Watching for targets. Watching not for the rich ones, but for the careless ones. Taking one’s time, waiting for the right moment, and knowing when to turn away. How to blend in. Not taking unnecessary risks. Knowing not just how to get in and complete the theft, but how to get away safely as well. Always having an exit.

But after a certain point, those talents were wasted in the Grand Market, and so the thieves who reached the necessary level of skill were promoted to other tasks. Qadira had begun wondering when her day would come. It came in a way she did not expect.

She made an uncharacteristic mistake trying to rob Rafiq. She had let herself get distracted by the beautiful asadarah with him, believing him to be a foolish dandy wasting money on an expensive courtesan. She easily recognized what Zahra was, because she made little effort to hide it. Rafiq, though, he had a strange nebulous quality about him. He blended in when he wanted to, despite his ancestry. So Qadira had focused on his purse and not on him.

Her technique was flawless, but still he detected her. The moment his hand closed around hers, gripping her like iron in a way she knew she would never escape, five years of guild slavery flashed before her eyes.

But he was no dandy or merchant who would call for the guard.

Instead, he was something else entirely. That night, she learned who he was and nearly fainted. She would never leave the Grand Market now, not after such an offense. For an apprentice to be caught trying to rob a senior guild thief was such an embarrassment she could barely get her mind around it.

Now Qadira laughed to herself.

She had not offended him, after all. She had impressed him. So she would do so again.

For the sixth time that morning, she drifted past the jewelry store. She was so familiar with the rhythms of the market now that she could do it easily without attracting attention. She knew how to change her posture, her gait, or her route, or to adjust her clothing slightly, little things here and there, all to avoid being recognized for passing the same point repeatedly. Goblins were everywhere in the market, and it took little more than basic effort.

Then she saw it.

As she approached the store, things had changed from earlier that morning. The two lazy

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