The Gentleman Thief by Kate Gragg

Author:Kate Gragg [Gragg, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Distant Shore Publishing
Published: 2020-04-16T22:00:00+00:00

Tink, tink, tink, tink.

I groaned and flung my good arm across my eyes, trying to block out the late afternoon sun.

“If a rock didn’t work, I don’t know why you’d think a stick would,” I said.

“Well I can keep trying this or we can switch to my plan,” Lydia snapped.

“I told you, I can’t have my hand cut off. I’m a thief.”

“You’re a chimney-sweep, Joe. All these years and all you’re doing is wishing you were a thief. And to think when I saw you in those clothes, I actually thought you’d made something of yourself.”

“Oh, are you upset that I lied? Do lies offend you, Pirate Queen?”

“I never said I was a pirate queen,” Lydia said, whacking my crystallized hand so hard it made all the bones in my arm jangle.

The water had turned out to work something like the cauldron of molten sugar water they had at the candy makers. The candy maker would dip wooden sticks into the water and pull out crystals of rock candy. This was like that, but the candy was gems and the sticks were whatever got in the water’s path, like rocks or aspiring knights or my non-dominant but still very much valued and appreciated hand.

Lydia sat down suddenly and rummaged through her sleeves, which I’d come to realize contained both an apothecary and a small armory. She pulled out an enormous knife and offered it to me.

“You can do it yourself if you want. But trust me, Joe, you don’t want to be out here after dark.”

“I don’t want to be out here at all,” I groused.

My hand being stuck to the ground had me lying at a weird angle, and I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast.

Then I sneezed, which practically wrenched my stuck arm out of its socket. I heard an answering chirp.

“The learcock!” Lydia said. “Look, Joe, it’s practically on top of you.”

“Great. Let’s catch it and head back and I can be the only knight with a hook for a hand.”

The bird was browsing among the gems, pecking here and there like a chicken on the hunt for a worm. It seemed to find one it liked and settled down beside it, then flung open its beak and started to sing. Two lilting notes, high and clear, the most beautiful I’d ever heard.

“Did you know they sang?” I whispered to Lydia. She shook her head.

“I’d never even seen one before today. They’ve been extinct on this island for years.”

Then the damndest thing happened. The gem started to sing back.

The gem resonated with every tone, vibrating more and more until it was hopping like a wind-up toy. When it all seemed to reach a fever pitch, the stone cracked and out hopped out a very surprised-looking mouse. The learcock ate it with one crunch of its beak and then turned to us, making sure we were watching it preen its magical feathers.

Lydia and I looked at each other and had the same thought.

“Here chickie chickie!”

“Who’s a good bird? Over here yeah?”

“I’ve got…” Lydia rooted through her sleeves.

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