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Back Den of Thieves
Chapters (122)
  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Map
  4. Prologue
  5. Part I - A Thief’s Ransom
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. Chapter Twenty-Six
  32. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  33. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  34. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  35. Chapter Thirty
  36. Part II - An Unquiet Crown
  37. Interlude
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Chapter Forty-Two
  50. Chapter Forty-Three
  51. Chapter Forty-Four
  52. Chapter Forty-Five
  53. Chapter Forty-Six
  54. Chapter Forty-Seven
  55. Chapter Forty-Eight
  56. Chapter Forty-Nine
  57. Chapter Fifty
  58. Part III - The Crew
  59. Interlude
  60. Chapter Fifty-One
  61. Chapter Fifty-Two
  62. Chapter Fifty-Three
  63. Chapter Fifty-Four
  64. Chapter Fifty-Five
  65. Chapter Fifty-Six
  66. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  67. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  68. Chapter Fifty-Nine
  69. Chapter Sixty
  70. Chapter Sixty-One
  71. Chapter Sixty-Two
  72. Chapter Sixty-Three
  73. Chapter Sixty-Four
  74. Chapter Sixty-Five
  75. Chapter Sixty-Six
  76. Chapter Sixty-Seven
  77. Chapter Sixty-Eight
  78. Chapter Sixty-Nine
  79. Chapter Seventy
  80. Part IV - The Job
  81. Interlude
  82. Chapter Seventy-One
  83. Chapter Seventy-Two
  84. Chapter Seventy-Three
  85. Chapter Seventy-Four
  86. Chapter Seventy-Five
  87. Chapter Seventy-Six
  88. Chapter Seventy-Seven
  89. Chapter Seventy-Eight
  90. Chapter Seventy-Nine
  91. Chapter Eighty
  92. Chapter Eighty-One
  93. Chapter Eighty-Two
  94. Chapter Eighty-Three
  95. Chapter Eighty-Four
  96. Chapter Eighty-Five
  97. Chapter Eighty-Six
  98. Chapter Eighty-Seven
  99. Chapter Eighty-Eight
  100. Chapter Eighty-Nine
  101. Chapter Ninety
  102. Chapter Ninety-One
  103. Chapter Ninety-Two
  104. Chapter Ninety-Three
  105. Chapter Ninety-Four
  106. Chapter Ninety-Five
  107. Chapter Ninety-Six
  108. Chapter Ninety-Seven
  109. Chapter Ninety-Eight
  110. Chapter Ninety-Nine
  111. Chapter One Hundred
  112. Acknowledgments
  113. Excerpts from A Thief in the Night and Honor Among Thieves
  114. A Thief in the Night - Prologue
  115. A Thief in the Night - Chapter One
  116. Honor Among Thieves - Prologue
  117. Honor Among Thieves - Chapter One
  118. About the Author
  119. Books by David Chandler
  120. Copyright
  121. About the Publisher
  122. Cover

Bikker grunted in frustration. “This doesn’t sit well with me. The thief knows too much, and he’s hardly to be trusted. Leaving him alive is foolhardy.”

“Yes, I’m aware of it. Which is why Hazoth is going to kill him. No need to get your hands dirty when we have one of the world’s greatest sorcerers on our side.”

“As you wish,” Bikker said. Though it still rankled him. Not because he thought Hazoth wouldn’t do it. Because he had intended to give Malden—whom he had actually come to respect, after a fashion—a clean death. He could only imagine the particulars, but he was sure that what Hazoth did to the thief would be downright gruesome in comparison.

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One

Croy and Cythera spent much of the night in furtive silence, as they wended their way from Castle Hill all the way down to Parkwall. The city watch was out in force and looking for them, and they had to take great pains to avoid capture.

Twice they came close to discovery. They had docked their little boat in the Smoke, in a place where two tanneries discharged the contents of their vats directly into the Skrait. Cythera thought the smell would keep the watch away and they could debark unseen. They nearly walked right into an armed guard who stood watching a pile of untanned hides that had just been delivered. The guard challenged them as they came up the riverside stairs, and they had to run as he chased them with a club. Croy could have made short work of the man, of course, but that would have just drawn more attention.

The second brush with the watch was more serious. They had arrived nearly at the edge of Ladypark Common, within sight of Hazoth’s villa and the house where Croy was staying—only to find the grassy sward crawling with watchmen. The two of them retreated to a tavern a few streets away, where they were able to find out why the common was so heavily guarded. It transpired that a footpad had murdered the footman of a money-changer there earlier in the evening. It had been a particularly bloody killing, and the watch was called down in droves to find evidence and look for the assassin.

“They won’t find him,” Cythera said, when she and Croy could speak privately again. “That was Bikker’s work.”

“Are you sure?” Croy asked, looking as if he would grab his swords and run out into the night to find the big swordsman.

“No,” she said. “I can’t prove anything. But he was supposed to set a number of diversions, all the better to keep the watch away from Castle Hill. I didn’t think he’d be so . . . expedient about it.”

Croy settled down then. In his personal book of accounts, Bikker already had enough crimes under his name. One more didn’t change how he felt.