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endaran Caradec hunkered down in his threadbare cloak for a cold night beneath the stars. His shoulder was pressed against the lintel of an arched doorway and the ruins of a temple lay scattered around him. He was miles from the relative safety of Ascalon, yet he smiled beneath the deep shadow of his hood. His handsome features were particularly winsome when he grinned, and he knew it. He had used his looks to great benefit over the last few years, both as a budding actor, and now as a homeless scoundrel.
While he appeared destitute and tragic, he was, in truth, neither. The object of his amusement was clutched in his gloved hands. A tiny galaxy of gleaming jewels twinkled beneath his avid gaze in the fading orange light of the ruined landscape. If his acting career and noble upbringing had taught him nothing else, it was that the poor were invisible to the rich. He had sneaked unseen from the wealthy household and disappeared into the night with his treasure.
He had not always been a thief. In fact, he could have been any number of things, as his father had been so fond of reminding him. But the stage had been his first love and with Ascalon in ruins, there was little need for his specialty now. Could he be blamed if this was his answer to the tragedy that had befallen his homeland? Pendaran was accustomed to the finer things in life and he had to get by somehow.
By morning he would be in Piken Square and well on his way to Yak’s Bend to meet up with his dwarf friend Albrict of the bottomless purse and shady connections. He would pass on his plunder for a fat sack of coins. No questions would be asked. After that he would shed his humble disguise and seek a bath, a good meal, and perhaps a lady or two. It was all in a day’s work for a man with his talents.
He drew the necklace closer to his face, smelling the faint perfume of the woman whose throat it had once graced. How milky smooth her pale skin, how sweet their night of pleasure. When she awakened on the morrow, how long would she bask in the glow of their expended passions before she sought her lovely attire and discovered the true price of her dalliance?
Sweet Lyssa, he had been doubly rewarded for his effort.
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