Free Ambition and Alavidha by Candy Rae

Dukes was up to no good again. Some things
never did change. Still, it didn’t really matter. “What’s so
important about this box?” he asked, “and where exactly is it, you
never said.”
    “I didn’t did
I? It’s in a very difficult place.”
    “There’s no
strong room in all the lands that I can’t get in to,” Chad boasted.
“So what is it and where.”
    “You will take
the job?”
    “I said so
didn’t I? Chadwick Smallhide never goes back on his word.”
    “Well, I’m
authorised to tell you so much about the box’s contents. It proves
blood-lineage, papers and the like I believe.”
    This confirmed
Chad’s suspicions. The Kingdom of Murdoch was about to erupt into
civil war again. He thought this bit of information definitely
proved he was right. Perhaps there was, or would be another
claimant to the throne. He’d heard that the ruler of Murdoch was a
queen at the moment, a widowed queen and her heir, yes, another
girl. That was it then. Civil war. Still, it wasn’t his
problem.
    “Where is it?
Stewarton? In the repository there? Because if that’s the case I’ll
have the very devil of a job getting it.”
    “No, not
Stewarton. It’s in a cave in the very middle of the Rtathlians of
the Lind.”
    Chad regarded
his employer’s agent in stunned disbelief before exploding, “you
expect me to steal something guarded by the Lind? Your Duke must be
mad!”
    “Are you
reneging on your word?”
    “No. I am not.
I said I will do it and I will, but I’ll need a hundred crowns up
front.”
    “Fifty is all
I’m authorised to pay. You might fail and then my employer will
have all the trouble to find someone else.”
    “If I can’t do
it then no-one can,” boasted Chad.
    “They said you
were the best,” said Erik in a detached manner.
    “I am the
best,” Chad affirmed, “but even so…”
    “Think of it as
a challenge,” the man suggested, “the challenge of your life, you
may go down in history as the greatest, richest thief that ever
lived.”
    “I hope not,”
Chad disagreed, “part of the secret of success is anonymity.”
    He was going to
do this, he knew he was. Now he had heard about the box he wouldn’t
be able to rest until he had it in his possession.
    “Tell me what
the box looks like, not just it’s size.”
    The man smiled
thinly to himself as he brought a piece of grubby parchment from
his pocket.
    “This is the
picture of the box.”
    “Drawn from the
original?”
    “Yes, I believe
so.”
    Chad took the
parchment.
    “When I’ve got
the thing where do I take it? South to Murdoch?”
    “Galliard.”
    “Galliard?”
    “My Duke is not
the only collector in the world,” the man lied with a smoothness
born of long practice, “once word gets out that it has been stolen
he is sure that his rivals will try to take it off him. He wants it
delivered to him via a circuitous route. There will be a fast ship
waiting at Galliard.”
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    Chad took a
long time planning the theft. Good planning he knew was an
essential element of success. His employer hadn’t put a definite
time on when the box had to be stolen but it was essential he be
prepared.
    He had been
left coin, running expenses amounting to twenty gold crowns. Chad
spent wisely but as he planned he realised that thirty more crowns
which were to arrive by month’s end would not nearly be enough. He
would have to borrow the rest. He knew just the person.
    One fine day he
put the estate into the hands of his Steward and departed for
Stewarton.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    STEWARTON -
ARGYLL
     
    For a Master
Thief, who you know is almost as important as what you know. His
employer’s agent had sent him the rest of the crowns as promised
and although Chad calculated that this would be more than enough to
pay for the expenses he would have to pay out to steal the box he
had no intention of using more than a little of it for that
purpose.
    He intended to
let another foot the majority of the bill