Chapter 12: Stealing the beggars chest

I juggled the toys as a pregnant Jasmine held Melody and tried to pick up the picnic basket. I shook my head and hooked the handle with a foot before lifting it. Jasmine grinned as she took it and turned to start walking, “So why did father want to look at all the animals?”

I walked with her as I kept looking around the commons, “He said something about them changing because they eat I think.”

She laughed, “I think he is getting in over his head.”

The boy and girl ahead of us laughed and shifted and I moved to block Jasmine and stopped her, “Pick another mark.”

The two stopped smiling and the boy frowned, “I do not...”

I smiled, “Does the name Sinclair mean anything?”

He glanced around as the girls hissed, “He is...”

The boy hissed and I shook my head, “To late. Come to my home in one mark or I will have to hunt you down and I do not think you want that.”

They looked at each other and stepped aside. Jasmine looked at me with a smile as she absently changed our daughter’s summoning spell, “And should I ask what you plan to do with two thieves?”

I tossed a toy close to Melody and her magic swirled and brought it to her fist before she tried to suck on it. I grinned, “Do you really want to know?”

She shook her head as she caught another spell our daughter tried to do to summon Dragon and the others, “I guess not.”

I grinned, “Actually I was planning a large theft.”

She looked at me, “We do not need the money.”

I grinned, “Festival is coming.”

She shifted Melody and whispered a spell that made the picnic basket float after us. I knew she was curious and smiled before whistling. Melody did her giggling laugh and Jasmine sighed, “What are you going to do?”

I grinned again, “They are going to steal the beggars chest and pour it into the god fountains during festival.”

Jasmine laughed and shook her head, “And what happens to the beggars expecting their pieces of copper?”

I smiled smugly, “I happen to know that a certain baron in charge this year was planning to take most of the money. He is already pledged to provide two coppers for every beggar.”

She looked at me, “So if you steal the chest...”

I laughed as we walked between fountains and statues at the front of our home, “He has to pay the coppers out of his own pocket. More to the point, if the chest is taken he has to pay a matching fee to the King’s orphans.”

She laughed as we walked into the house and her mother turned from speaking to the three cats, “About time you got home.”

I smiled sweetly, “If you wanted to go with us all you had to do was ask. Instead you have been trying to get the cats to spy on Silver.”

She sniffed and Jasmine shook her head, “Mother.”

I carried the toys and picnic blanket into the kitchen and set everything on the table. I grinned as I looked at the cats that followed, “Would one of you go tell Dragon and the others we are back and I need them?”

The ruby cat nodded and headed for the door that opened on its own. I shook my head and looked at the others, “I wish you would tell me how you did that.”

They sat smugly and I headed into my study, “We need to plan a theft.”

I sat at the small writing desk and used a parchment and drew merchants square. I looked up when Dragon landed on my shoulder and looked around, “Everyone else back?”

She nodded and I reached up to rub her cheek, “Melody is taking a nap so you are here buttering me up?”

She chirped and I grinned before looking at the door where the two young thieves stood, “Good you are here.”

Jasmine handed them small plates of sweetbread and glasses of cider before pushing them into the room, “I am taking mother out so she does not spy.”

I grinned and watched her leave before looking at the two nervous children, “Ready for a large heist?”

They looked at each other before coming to the desk and looking at the parchment. The square was crowded, just the way we wanted. I moved through the people smoothly and bumped a man and sliced the seems on his purse. Coins spilled out and people shifted and looked as he stopped and tried to pick them up.

I stopped beside the stand and ten seconds later the lock on the iron band was open. I moved around as the boy and girl appeared carrying a chest hidden chest under a gauze. Dragon, Griffin and the drakes cried out as they danced in the air above and several people tripped over something unseen and fell on the outside of the square.

The new chest lifted at the other end of the chest on the stand and I grabbed an end handle and pulled. The heavy chest slid out from under the band and the new chest slid in. The boy caught the other end of the heavy chest and flicked the gauze like cloth over it. The girl paused and seemed to drop a few coppers into the chest.

Her other hand closed the lock on the iron band. She walked away as the boy and I left holding the chest that seemed to have vanished between us. After we were out of the square we walked calmly through the streets and back to my house. I grinned when the large crowd of children appeared and we set the chest on the edge of a fountain basin.

I nodded to the boy who looked around before bending as he pulled the gauze away and started picking the lock. A minute later he lifted the lid and grinned as his sister appeared. I gestured and they grabbed handfuls and started walking and dropping coins into the fountains. The children laughed as they lined up to grab coins to give to the gods.