The Magic Thief

  The Magic Thief

  Book One

  by Sarah Prineas

  Illustrations by Antonio Javier Caparo

  TO MAUD,

  WHO LAUGHED IN ALL

  THE RIGHT PLACES

  Contents

  Map

  Chapter 1

  A thief is a lot like a wizard. I have…

  Chapter 2

  On my first apprentice morning, the wizard Nevery woke me…

  Chapter 3

  On the morning of my second day as Nevery’s apprentice,…

  Chapter 4

  The box was full of magical things, all wrapped up…

  Chapter 5

  I woke up on my third day as Nevery’s apprentice…

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, I mixed some biscuits the way Nevery…

  Chapter 7

  When we finished lunch, I lugged up some water for…

  Chapter 8

  Back at Heartsease, Nevery changed me into a boy, and…

  Chapter 9

  I’d never been into Nevery’s workroom before. It was where…

  Chapter 10

  The rocks I’d found were laid out on trays covered…

  Chapter 11

  I gave Nevery the book I’d found in the other…

  Chapter 12

  Nevery decided to take me to the academicos the next…

  Chapter 13

  The next day, Nevery told me I would be presented…

  Chapter 14

  After the meeting with the magisters, Nevery and I walked…

  Chapter 15

  The next day, Nevery was in a hurry to get…

  Chapter 16

  I spent six days going to school with Rowan, while…

  Chapter 17

  Twenty days left.

  Chapter 18

  Sixteen days left. I’d been wasting too much time being…

  Chapter 19

  Today was the last day.

  Chapter 20

  After I left Heartsease, using the keystone to pass the…

  Chapter 21

  Even from outside and across the room, I could see…

  Chapter 22

  When I came to, the call of the jewel had…

  Chapter 23

  Captain Kerrn decided that the first dose of phlister hadn’t…

  Chapter 24

  In the morning, I woke up as usual in my…

  Chapter 25

  Nevery and I left the house. “You didn’t tell Keeston…

  Chapter 26

  On the way up the hill to the Dawn Palace,…

  Chapter 27

  When I came down for breakfast the morning after my…

  Chapter 28

  Benet, Keeston, and I turned off Strangle Street into an…

  Chapter 29

  “Benet,” I said the next day.

  Chapter 30

  Despite the new windows, the air in my attic was…

  Chapter 31

  Blending with the night, I slunk through the alleys until…

  Chapter 32

  I went straight back to the dark alleyway where my…

  Chapter 33

  Captured. Not by Kerrn’s men, though. They weren’t black bag…

  Chapter 34

  I was being stupid.

  Chapter 35

  When we stepped out of Pettivox’s house, it was night…

  Chapter 36

  I woke up. Even with my eyes closed, I knew…

  A Guide to Wellmet’s People and Places

  Thanks to…

  Praise

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Map

  CHAPTER 1

  A thief is a lot like a wizard. I have quick hands. And I can make things disappear. But then I stole the wizard’s locus magicalicus and nearly disappeared myself forever.

  It was a late night in the Twilight, black-dark as the inside of a burglar’s bag. The streets were deserted. A sooty fog crept up from the river, and the alleyways echoed with shadows. Around me I felt the city, echoing and empty, desolate and dead.

  The cobblestones under my bare feet were slick with the evening’s rain. No luck that day for my quick, pocket-pick hands, and I hadn’t managed to filch my supper or a bit of copper to buy it with. I was hollow with hunger. I might have tried somewhere else, except that the Underlord had a word out on me, and his minions would beat the fluff out of me if they could. Keeping an eye out, I lurked in an alleyway.

  Now it was late. The rain started up again, not a hard rain, but a cold one, just enough to get into your bones and make you shiver. A good night for misery eels. I hunched into my lurking spot and thought about warm dinners.

  Then I heard it. Step step tap. Step step tap. I edged back into my alley shadows to wait, and along he came. Old man, I thought. A bent, bearded, cloak-wearing old croakety croak leaning on a cane. Climbing the steep street toward me. Muttering to himself. His purse, I decided, would be paying for my dinner, though he didn’t know it yet.

  I was a shadow, a breath of air, light-feather fingers and—quick hands—I ghosted up behind him, dipped into his cloak pocket, grabbed what I found within, and was gone. Away clean.

  Or so I thought. The old man went on, not noticing a thing, and I slipped back into my alley and opened my hand to see what I’d got for my trouble.

  Even in the shadows, the thing I’d stolen was darker than dark, and though it was small, a stone no bigger than a baby’s fist, it was heavier than the heart of a man on his way to the gallows tree. It was a magical thing. The wizard’s locus magicalicus. As I stared down at the wizardly stone, it started to glow. Soft at first, with the red warmth of coals in a winter hearth. Then, a sudden fierce flash of lightning and the alley was alive with dancing, flashing light, the shadows fleeing like frightened black cats.

  I heard the wizard coming back. Step step tap. Step step tap. Quickly I fisted the stone and shoved it down deep into my pocket. Darkness fell again. As I turned, blinking the brights from my eyes to look, the old man came tip-tapping around my corner, and, reaching out with a big hand, grabbed me by the shoulder.

  “Well, boy,” he said. His voice was strong and gravelly.

  I stood still. I know trouble when it grabs me.

  The old man looked down at me with keen-glancing eyes. Silence for a long, dark moment. In my pocket, the stone weighed and warmed. Then he said, “You look hungry.”

  Well, yes. I was. Carefully, cautiously, I nodded.

  “Then I will buy you some dinner,” the old man said. “Roast pork, perhaps? Potatoes and pie?”

  I swallowed. My head was telling me this was not a good idea. The old man was a wizard, clear as clear, and what kind of fool sits down to eat dinner with a wizard?

  But my empty-since-yesterday stomach was telling me even louder that it wanted pork and peppered potatoes and pie. It told me to nod and I did.

  “Well then,” the old man wizard said. “The chophouse on the corner is still open.” He let me go and started step-tapping down the street, and I went with him. “I am Nevery,” he said. “And your name?”

  Telling wizards your name is generally not a good idea. I didn’t answer. Just walked along beside him. The wizard seemed to be looking ahead to the chophouse on the corner, but I caught a glimpse of his keen-gleam eyes, watching me from under the brim of his hat.

  The chophouse was lit by a coal fire in the hearth and was empty except for its keeper. “Dinner,” the wizard ordered, and held up two fingers. The chophouse keeper nodded and went to fetch the food. We settled at a table, me with my back against the wall, Nevery blocking my way to the door.

  “Well, boy,” the wizard said, taking off his ha
t. In the brighter light I saw that his eyes were black and his hair, beard, and eyebrows silver gray. Beneath his dark gray cloak, he wore black trousers and a black frock coat with a velvet collar and an embroidered black waistcoat, all of it just a bit shabby, as if he’d once had more money than he did now. He leaned his gold-knobbed cane against the table. “A cold, wet night for travelers, is it not?”

  A cold, wet night for anyone, I thought. I nodded.

  He looked at me. I looked back.

  “Yet you seem healthy enough,” he said, as if talking to himself. “No ill effects that I can see.”

  Ill effects? What was he talking about?

  “You never did tell me your name,” he said.

  And I wasn’t going to, either. I shrugged.

  Nevery opened his mouth to say something else, when the chophouse keeper delivered our food, plunking down full plates before us.

  The pork chops were fragrant and crisp, the potatoes swimming in butter with a sprinkling of black pepper over their shiny brown backs. The chophouse keeper returned briefly and added a plate of pie oozing with berries and dusted with sugar. The wizard said something, but I didn’t hear him. I picked up my fork and cut open a potato. I let butter soak in for a second and then took an enormous bite.

  “I said,” the wizard said, staring at me, “that my locus magicalicus will likely kill you, boy, very soon. I’m astonished it hasn’t done so already.”

  I gulped. My bite of potato slid like a lump of lead down my throat and I heard the echo as it dropped into my empty stomach.

  Kill me, did he say? The locus stone would kill me? I slid my hand into my pocket. And then I watched myself pull out the stone. It lay in my palm like a soft-edged bit of night.

  I blinked, and the stone swelled, and a heavy, night-dark mass filled my hands. The firelight flickered out.

  In the distance, I heard the chophouse keeper scream. The wizard snatched up his knobbed cane and leaped to his feet.

  In my hands, the stone’s warmth turned to ice. It grew larger, and though I tried to put it down, it wouldn’t let me go. The freezing heaviness grew and expanded until it was all around me, dragging me down into a seething black pit where the wind stabbed me with needles of ice and roared with a voice that rumbled in my bones.

  I peered up through the lashing darkness.

  The wizard Nevery loom-doomed up before me.

  “Tell me your name!” he shouted.

  I shook my head. The wind shrieked and tore with icy fingers at my hair and clothes.

  Nevery shouted again; I could barely hear his voice above the wind. “If you don’t tell me your name, fool, I cannot save you!”

  The wind whipped around me. Cold air flowed from the stone, reaching out with icy fingers, pulling me in, and I pushed it away and shouted my name, “Connwaer!”

  In the distance, I heard Nevery’s strong, gravelly voice shout my name along with other words, a magical spell. Then I felt his hand, warm, solid, close over mine and take the stone.

  The wind died. The air warmed. All was quiet.

  After a while, I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the wooden floor of the chophouse, the fire flickering in the fireplace and Nevery at the table taking a last bite of berry pie. He wiped his mouth on a napkin and leaned back in his chair, looking down at me.

  The stone was nowhere to be seen.

  “Well then, boy,” he said, his eyes gleaming. “My locus magicalicus ought to have killed you the moment you laid your thieving fingers on it. But it did not. And because you are not dead, you interest me.”

  I blinked and climbed shakily to my feet. On the table, my plate of pork chops and potatoes waited for me. And the berry pie dusted with sugar. I could have made a run for it, then. He couldn’t have caught me. Quick-dart for the door and back out into the steep, rain-dark streets of Wellmet. But I didn’t. Because I interested the wizard.

  The thing is, I make a good thief, me and my quick hands. But I’ll make an even better wizard’s apprentice.

  * * *

  Arrived back in this accursed city after nightfall. Dratted city guards tried to arrest me. Prison if I’m caught here. Used remirrimer spell, eluded them. Forced to retreat to Twilight, west of river.

  Dangerous place.

  Banishment from Wellmet a long misery, travel from city to city, my grimoire lost, my magic weakened. Would not have come back but for letter from Brumbee.

  My dear Nevery,

  I know that when you left you swore never to return to Wellmet, but dire events are taking place in the city. We have been monitoring the magical levels and have made an alarming discovery. The level of magic in Wellmet is ebbing. This has been going on for years, but lately the level has fallen rather alarmingly and abruptly, and we magisters can discover no reason why this should be so. The duchess is no help, of course. You must return and aid the city in its time of need. Please tell no one that I have written to you.

  Really, Nevery, I do not know what to do. You must help.

  Very sincerely yours,

  Brumbee, Magister,

  Master of Wellmet Academicos, &c.

  Letter did not mention fact that I have been banished from Wellmet for past twenty years. Typical of Brumbee. Man’s too worried to think about consequences of inviting me back to city.

  To do:

  1. Find accommodation in Twilight.

  2. Meet Brumbee

  3. Meet with Underlord Crowe

  4. Hire muscle. Benet?

  After arrival in Twilight, went in search of dinner.

  Note to self: check locus magicalicus for adosyncratichi, be sure it’s unaffected by tonight’s adventure.

  Was not planning on taking on servant. Will probably not keep him, as most likely not worth trouble. Boy thief is wrapped up in a blanket on the hearth, sound asleep. From here, looks like bundle of rags with dirty bare feet sticking out one end and shock of dirty dark hair out the other.

  Only time for short entry tonight. Am weary from the journey and must think on what is to come.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 2

  On my first apprentice morning, the wizard Nevery woke me up.

  He stood all-tall, wearing his gray wizard’s robe, and nudged meagain with his foot.

  “Get up, boy.” He pointed with his cane at a basin of water on the table. “Wash yourself and join me in the chophouse for breakfast.”

  Breakfast!

  As he left the room, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and rolled myself out of the blanket.

  Wash up, the wizard had said. I went to the table, to the basin of water. Stuck my finger in. Brrr. Cold as cobbles.

  I went downstairs for breakfast and found the wizard at the same table we’d shared the night before. Nevery sat with his knob-headed cane propped against the wall beside his chair, drinking tea. His cloak, I noticed, had a patch on the sleeve with a picture of an hourglass with wings on it, stitched in dark blue thread.

  “Did you wash?” Nevery asked.

  I shrugged, looking past him at the table. There were hot biscuits and bacon and porridge and tea. I started for my seat but stopped when he grabbed me.

  “You washed?”

  Well, no. Not yet. I shook my head.

  He pointed toward the stairs. “You wash. And then you may eat.”

  And if I didn’t make it quick, he’d eat all the bacon, no doubt. I ran up the stairs to the room. I stripped off my shirt and splashed up some water and scrubbed my hands and face. Shivering, I went down again.

  Nevery nodded.

  I sat down and reached for the biscuits.

  The wizard stared at me while I ate. He was looking at me, but he was thinking about something else.

  All right with me. I had porridge with butter to deal with. The chophouse keeper brought more things to eat. At last I finished the last crumb of pie left over from the night before.

  “Had enough?” Nevery asked.

  I nodded.

  “I should think so,�
� he muttered, getting to his feet and taking up his cane. “Come along, boy.”

  He headed for the door, jamming his flat-topped, wide-brimmed hat onto his head and pausing to settle up with the chophouse keeper, then striding out onto the street.

  Not one to stand about talking, was he?

  “Where we going?” I asked, catching up.

  He gave me one of his keen-gleam glances and strode on. I kept up, having to run a few steps now and then to stay with him.

  Nevery turned onto Strangle Street, then down Fleetside, glancing at the falling-down houses and dark shops as he passed, looking for something. At last he stopped before a tavern, the kind of smokehole you have to take two steps down to get inside, the kind of place people go to make dark deals.

  “Wait here, boy,” Nevery said, and swept-stepped down into the tavern.

  I leaned against the brick wall outside. The wind blew down the street, stirring up the trash in the gutters, poking cold fingers down the back of my shirt. The cobblestones were like ice under my feet. Out around me, the city felt shivery and empty. I hugged myself to keep warm.

  After a while, Nevery came up out of the tavern, followed by a thick-necked, tall man with spiky hair and a face like a bare-knuckles brawl. Muscle, minion, man of the hench. He wore a plain brown suit with a knitted red waistcoat under it and a wide, brass-buckled belt and, from the looks of it, kept a knife and an almost-empty purse string in his coat pocket. He’d be working for Nevery, I guessed, so I wouldn’t try to steal them.