Free The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) by JF Smith Page B

consequences, he was free to become a thief with no concern for those whom he violated with his habits. It was liberating, but in the most ignoble way.
    “Have you given thought to what I said last night?”
    “Hmmm?” said Gully, pulled from his thoughts.
    “Have you given thought to joining the Kingdom Guard? Putting your skills to a nobler purpose?”
    Gully laughed at the idea.
    Roald, now peeved, said, “You may be a thief, but that’s not cause to laugh at the fact that I want to do some good in the kingdom! That I want to serve the people and make the realm a better place!”
    Gully stopped laughing. “You misunderstand me entirely, Roald. I do not laugh at you. Far from it! You do indeed make this city and this kingdom a better place, and I meant it when I have said the same in the past! I laugh... at myself! I laugh at the idea of someone like me joining — the scourge of the Guard becoming one in their midst! But more seriously, I find unpalatable the idea that I would set myself to serve the very class of nobility that irks me in so many ways... our ‘betters’ that look down on people like me, and even good people like you.”
    “There is a reason their families are of nobility,” began Roald, like he was schooling his brother. “Their ancestors paid the price to raise them up in a superior place in our kingdom.”
    “Aye, but the nobility we have today are not their ancestors,” countered Gully. “What we have today are twelve families sitting on the backs of the rest of us, for no other reason than they were born on our backs, and complaining that they deserve more because they are of noble blood. All while having done so little to earn their vaunted position. The notion of me joining to protect and support the nobles and royals of the Iisendom is pure foolishness.”
    Roald was quiet and Gully suspected that Roald heard his words as an attack on him.
    Gully said, “But I grant you the truth of what you really want, my brother... to see me turn to be an honest member of the kingdom. You have only my interest at heart, and I do appreciate that you wish as such for me. And I certainly find no fault with your career in the Guard. You are there to improve society for your fellow man, and I respect you mightily for it. But it is not my lot in life to be able to do the same and I will remain naught but a thorn inside the boot of the Iisendom.”
    Next to him, Roald was quiet in thought before he shifted slightly and said, “Do you think I’m any good, Gully?”
    “You’re one of the best guards out of the lot of them! You’ll be promoted again soon, mark my words!” said Gully. “Not soon enough, in my opinion!”
    Roald said with hesitation, “No. I don’t mean like that. I mean because of... how I am.”
    Gully took a deep breath and tried to decide how to answer best. “I chose to become a thief, Roald, and I make that same choice each day I venture out. And you sit here and ask what I think of you because of some part of you that you never chose and never would choose if you could? The idea is preposterous. Through no fault of your own, you are what you are. But every choice you have made in your life, you have made well, and are to be proud of each. And any man of Iisen that would ignore that to mock you or hold you in contempt because of your attractions is a mule-hearted fool!”
    Roald remained quiet, holding his mug in his hands and staring into it.
    “You are a fine person, with a fine character — just and good and loyal. I daresay that you deserve a place in the sky of greater prominence than most of what the members of the Iisendom’s nobility claim for themselves.”
    “Gully!” exclaimed Roald in shock.
    “You asked my opinion, and I give it to you honestly.” Gully asked, “Do you think one day you’ll deny your natural urges and take a wife? Have children?”
    Roald sighed and leaned back on his elbows. “’Tis something that weighs on me more and more. It would