Free Dragon Thief by S. Andrew Swann Page A

me.”
    â€œHarboring
you
is an act of war.”
    The way Prince Oliver said that gave me a chill unrelated to the winter air. I knew I had a couple of thieves’ guilds after me, but the prince implied something a slight bit more significant than conning a group of provincial outlaws out of their own ill-gotten gains.
    â€œWhat did he do to you?” Grace asked.
    â€œAsk your friend.”
    Way to put me on the spot, Your Highness.
    I summoned up Snake’s most intimidating tone and said, “She was asking
you
.”
    â€œFine,” he muttered with something like resignation. “I can think of worse uses for my last words than to condemn this villain for his crimes.”
    Grace snorted. “Don’t preach to me the evils of thievery. I know the way the world works. You men in pretty robes are as much the thief as us, no less so because you do so at the point of a sword and some king’s ‘law.’”
    Prince Oliver laughed, and there was so little humor in it that it began to terrify me what he might say next. I didn’t want to hear.
    I didn’t want Grace to hear.
    â€œThis man is no simple thief, and his crimes extend far beyond the simple taking of property. Dermonica is peaceful, our people were prosperous from trade, trade that came through Fellhaven, our one navigable ocean port. For decades we had an agreement with the pirates of Darkblood Reef.”
    I knew where this was going, the use of the past tense was a big clue—as was the sudden diplomatic interest in trade routes through Lendowyn.
    â€œTribute,” I whispered.
    â€œYou are aptly named,” Prince Oliver said.
    â€œWhat happened?” Grace asked.
    â€œThe legendary Snake won’t elaborate for you?” The prince waited me to fill the silence. When I didn’t, he continued. “For the safety of Fellhaven we paid the pirates a third of the gold from trade in a year. In return, we had safe passage, and our enemies did not. But this prior year, our diplomats left on a ship bearing gold, and arrived on a ship bearing lead.”
    â€œA whole ship full of gold?” I heard a tone of awe in Grace’s voice. Enough so that I knew that she hadn’t yet thought through the consequences of such an act.
    â€œFive days later, our ship returned to Fellhaven Bay. They had tied the crew to the masts, and once it reached the inner harbor, they set it aflame. As that ship crashed aground on the docks, the pirates came.”
    â€œWhat did they—”
    â€œFellhaven was sacked, burned to the ground. Thousands dead.”
    â€œYou had no defenders?” I snapped.
    â€œAfter five decades of peace, and no sign of the pirates breaking it? There was only the city watch, who massed to battle the fire on the docks. Every death there is on your hands.” He turned toward me, nightcap still pulled over his eyes. “Do the courtesy of at least having the courage to look me in the eyes when you kill me.”
    â€œYeah, about that?” I said. “Not going to happen.”
    I pushed him, and he tumbled off the bench into a snowdrift by the side of the road. We rode off to the sounds of him cursing Snake’s name.
    Grace stared at me with wide eyes, “Why did you do that?”
    â€œHe was weighing us down,” I said. “And I can’t kill him. Against the rules, right?”

CHAPTER 10

    We rode the carriage into the dawn. Fearless Leader spent the time in uncharacteristic silence. While that wasn’t unwelcome, she seemed to be spending her time digesting the confirmation of my identity by a credible witness.
    I had some idea how she might have felt.
    The more I heard about this Snake character, the less I liked him. It wasn’t the thievery, I’m no hypocrite. Not about that at least. I held about the same opinion of the state of the world as Grace had elaborated to the prince. If the lords were entitled to tax the people, I felt