Prince of Luster Read Online Free PDF Page A

Constables were on patrol. Even from a distance, he recognized their uniform badges and side arms in the moonlight.
    He glanced at the small figure struggling to tie up a sack. Apparently, the little thief hadn’t expected them. It could be they were only present because of
him
.
    Marcos watched the cloaked figure move away, but it wouldn’t be soon enough for the constables not to notice.
    Why did he care? A thief was a thief, and he’d incarcerated enough in his time to understand any
other
constable’s enforcement of very similar laws. Still, something with the situation wasn’t right. If a person wanted to steal, why do it from a burned-out mercantile likely not to hold anything of real value? Nothing but food, water, or perhaps some medicine.
    Glancing between the two approaching constables and the small form, logic warred with compassion. The latter won.
    He moved closer to his open window, put his hands on the edge, and slammed it hard. The sound echoed to the street below and the thief looked up. Marcos saw the cloaked figure’s attention move not only up to where he stood, but quickly down the street where the constables now moved faster. The sound had alerted them as well. His act was all he could think of doing on the spur of the moment, without risking his mission.
    As if by magic, the thief backed quickly into the shadows and became one with the dark columns and window ledges of the buildings. Marcos saw the constables trot up to the front of the inn. They quickly glanced around and finally pulled search beams from their uniform belts. In doing so, they made themselves obvious to anyone who cared to look out the window. They no longer cared if anybody knew they were present. He held his breath as their lights were directed to the areas on either side of the street.
    One of the constables drew his laser and aimed it straight at the wall where Marcos had last seen the small figure. But there was nothing there.
    Marcos let out a sigh of relief and watched as the guards searched a few minutes longer, then finally made their way back the way they’d come. It suddenly dawned on him that the thief had to be a woman or a young girl. In the moonlight, the bandit’s shoulders were narrower than a man’s. But it was really his experience with the female anatomy that gave rise to his conviction.
    The grace with which the gloved hands had grabbed at the sack, and the slight swaying motion of the body as she moved, left him in little doubt. And he was that much happier for his decision to slam the window. He didn’t want to think about what might happen to the little thief if corrupt constables caught her. He was sure the men who’d confronted him earlier weren’t the kind of enforcers to honor a female prisoner’s rights. They were surly-looking sorts better suited to criminal activity themselves. The way they’d questioned him right after finding out he’d arrived was, in and of itself, suspicious.
    He smiled, turned away from the window, and decided to get some sleep.
    • • •
    Nova huddled near the small fire in her cave and held Una close. “I don’t know why someone would help me,” she whispered to the white, round ball of fuzz in her arms. “Whoever it was could just have easily called out to the constables and picked up a nice reward. And what were the local enforcers doing there in the first place? They’re never walking the street in front of the inn these days. It makes no sense.”
    Una sighed in contentment and stuck her cold black nose against her mistress’s cheek.
    “I’ll have to be much more careful. But I bet if I go to the marketplace tomorrow, I’ll find out if there’s anyone new in the area. Someone who obviously doesn’t know about the bounty on thieves’s heads. What do you think?”
    Una yawned, gazed adoringly up, and cuddled closer.
    “That’s what I’ll do, then. I’ll go to the marketplace tomorrow.”
    No one would recognize her or care about her presence if