The allure of the upper city was too great, and a few days later, I was back amid the white streets and buildings. I lurked in the shadows between two buildings that faced onto the largest courtyard in the city. This was where richer merchants and foreigners from the port could come to sell their goods. Colourful tents and wooden booths lined the edges of the courtyard and spread across the cobbled ground, each one decorated with signs or flags indicating what they were selling and where they were from. 

Around the courtyard, the large buildings held permanent shops and workplaces for people of the city. This was a highly dangerous spot for me to be, but also profitable if I was cautious. The chaos of the booths and tents gave me many places to hide. At the same time, the courtyard was filled with guards, who stood out easily in their armour and gold cloaks. They were mostly there to keep the merchants in line, but wouldn't hesitate to arrest a thief foolish enough to wander into the market.

After a long period of deliberation, I slipped into the crowds. I let the flow of people guide me into the middle of the courtyard, and only then did I start looking around at what the market had to offer. I was almost overwhelmed by the variety of goods. In one booth, a man was selling fine cloth, in another a woman had laid out a display of foreign jewellery. Beside her booth was a tent, inside which were baskets of fresh fruit, probably just transported by ship that morning. The next wooden booth had rows of shining blades; swords, knives, and daggers with fancy hilts. I had no weapons of my own, since I was nearly useless with any kind of blade—I was more likely to hurt myself than my enemy. Still, they drew my attention. I longed to slip one from the table and hide it in my cloak.

I tore myself away from the knife display to continue exploring the market. As usual, I hadn't eaten that morning, so the firstrisk I took was to steal a small bun while the baker was distracted. I turned away from the booth and let myself get lost in the crowd before tearing a piece off the bun and sticking it into my mouth. I ate while wandering past a few more displays.

Another jewellery stand caught my attention next. I paused in front of it, letting my eyes drift over fancy necklaces, rings, and brooches. They would be easy to sell. There was always a poor wife or prostitute hoping to make herself look richer with the help of some gold or jewels. Lost in thought, I reached out to run my fingers over the large red jewel in one of the necklaces. My hand was slapped and I was suddenly brought back to my senses. I glanced up in alarm and met the angry eyes of the woman in charge of the booth.

"What are you doing, boy?" she demanded.

"My mother," I replied vaguely, feigning shyness. "I was hoping to maybe buy her something."

"You got money on you?" The woman looked me over. I could almost feel her scrutinizing gaze. Thank Zianesa the market was always so full of foreigners. My darker skin didn't automatically mark me out as a poor Native Zian.

I nodded. "Yes, miss."

She instantly changed her attitude toward me with those two simple words. "Well, boy, what exactly are you looking for?" She leaned across the counter towards me.

I shrugged. "Gold. She likes red." I reached out towards the necklace again and this time the woman let my fingers lift it from the table. I lay the pendant in my hand and stared down at the large red jewel. It sparkled in the sunlight, almost making it look like it was on fire.

"Interesting ring you've got," the woman commented.

"Oh, thank you," I replied.

"What's the inscription say?"

"I—" I wasn't about to tell her that I couldn't read the inscription. "My family's motto," I lied. I handed the necklace back to her. As much as I wanted to take it, I couldn't now that she'd paid such close attention to me. I made my excuses and walked off.

I was still hungry, so I went back to the fruit tent I'd seen earlier. Foreign fruit was always interesting to try. Luckily for me, the booth was crowded and it was easy to go unseen. I reached into the basket farthest away from the owner. What I pulled out didn't really look like food. They were small, red, spiky balls. I doubted the outside was meant to be eaten, so as I walked away from the tent I care-fully peeled the skin off one of them. Inside, the fruit was white and juicy. I popped it into my mouth cautiously. There was a pit in the centre and I spat it out. I'd taken four of the strange little fruit, so I reached into my pocket to pull out another. By the time I'd eaten all four, I'd made up my mind. They were delicious.

I still hadn't taken anything of value, and I was starting to get a little nervous. I wanted something to show for my trip to the market. Among the precarious ranking of the thieves in the lower city, I enjoyed my place at the top because I made these riskier trips. If I didn't take anything I could show off, the other thieves would start to look down on me. There were rules among the thieves. We were all trying to survive and for the most part had no reason to fight each other, but the lower one was in the ranking, the less the rules applied. To keep myself safe, I had to stay on top, and I couldn't claim to be the greatest thief in Zianna without consistently providing proof.

Two young boys ran past me, and of course they didn't notice when my hand slipped out and snatched the coin bag from one of their pockets. Normally I wouldn't take from children, but these two were obviously rich, and could afford to lose a few coins. I emptied the bag into my hand, dropped it, and carefully placed the coins in my pocket.

Suddenly, yelling broke out near me and I flinched, thinking that the boys must have noticed their missing money. I quickly saw the source of the commotion, a large man yelling at a boy. 

A boy I recognized. 

Against my better judgement, I made my way through the crowd towards them. The man had a tight grip on the boy's arm, preventing him from running off. The boy was probably a year or two younger than me, and we crossed paths occasionally in the lower city.

"Finn?" he asked, likely startled that I was intervening. He'd made a mistake and been caught. We tended to not help fellow thieves; it was always too risky.

"Be quiet, Baisan," I replied sharply before looking at the man. "Sir? Excuse me, what did my brother do?" It was a lie, but we were both Natives and the man would have no reason to suspect that we weren't related.

"He stole food from my booth," the man growled.

I widened my eyes, pretending to be surprised, and then glared at Baisan. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"I... I'm sorry, Finn," Baisan mumbled, getting over his confusion and going along with the act.

"What did he take?" I reached into my pocket and pulled out the coins I had just taken from the little rich boy. "Will this cover it?" I dropped the coins into the man's hand. He released Baisan's arm to poke through the little pile. After a moment, he grunted in satisfaction and waved us away. I had counted them too, and regretted handing over the whole pile. I had given up ten whole siyas, much more than Baisan was worth. I grabbed his hood and used it to drag him out of the crowds to the edge of the marketplace, not bothering to be gentle.

"For the love of Zianesa, Finn, let go of me," he complained.

I did, and gave him a push into a little side alley. I stepped into it after him and stood in the way so he couldn't get out. "What are you doing?"

Baisan rubbed his wrist where the merchant had been holding him. "Trying to steal something good from the market, of course. You don't have claim to it, you know."

"You almost got arrested."

"Since when do you care? We aren't in the business of helping each other. I would have been out of your way."

"You would have been dead," I pointed out.

"Well," Baisan shrugged. "Thank you. You didn't need to be so rough, though." He rubbed his neck.

"Of course I did. I was being an angry older brother," I said. "Go home, before you get yourself caught again."

"So you are trying to get rid of competition, huh?" Baisan asked. "If you scare me away from the upper city, you get it almost entirely to yourself. Is that your plan?"

I sighed. "Fine, stay here. But if you get caught again, I'm not going to help you." I turned to walk away, but Baisan stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Arow's out for your blood. Be careful when you go back down. I'll tell him I saw you out near the southern wall, so hopefully he'll be out of your way."

I nodded. We often traded favours; it was all we had to give. "Thank you." He let go of my shoulder and I left the alley. It was tempting to go back into the market, but it was getting darker as real dusk started to fall. I heard Baisan leave the alley behind me, and didn't bother looking to see where he was headed. Instead, I began walking back towards the market. There was enough daylight left to try to steal something else, and hopefully not use it to save another thief's life.

I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to step up to another jewellery display, when Baisan appeared at my side, out of breath. "Finn, the guards..." He cut himself off as shouts rang out behind us. "Run," he said, before bolting down the street beside us. I didn't hesitate to follow him. If the guards had seen him talking to me, I'd be arrested too. I quickly caught up.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing," Baisan protested. "It was just a couple of coins. They didn't need it."

"I told you to go home."

"It was on the way. I didn't expect—" he paused to duck under the arm of a passerby probably hoping to get a reward for catching him, "—them to notice."

I stopped running suddenly, and Baisan stopped a few steps later. "What are you doing?"

"Go home," I told him.

Baisan looked at me, then his gaze went over my shoulder to the men running up the street after us. He turned and ran.

I waited just long enough that Baisan was out of sight, and then ran to the edge of the street. I jumped on top of an abandoned cart and from there started up the wall. I wasn't sure what it was guarding, but it had to be something important to be this close to the castle. 

Just as I'd hoped, the guards chasing us didn't bother following Baisan. None of them could climb the wall, so they did the next best thing and started throwing things at me. Just small rocks, to try to startle me into falling. If I fell, I'd probably die, but even if I survived, I'd be arrested.

I ignored the rocks as best I could and continued steadily up the wall. One hit the back of my right hand and I almost lost my grip on the wall. When I reached the top, my arms were aching. I sat on the top for a moment to regain my strength. I was too high up by then for the guards' rocks to hit me, and there didn't seem to be anyone on the other side. I was confused by what I saw. I had walked past this section of wall a hundred times, and I'd always assumed it was surrounding part of the castle grounds. What I found instead was a handful of buildings separated from both the upper city and the castle.

I started descending the other side of the wall. Like with the dividing wall, the ground on this side was much closer than the ground on the other. When I reached the cobbled walkway, I warily started walking along it. I needed to get out of this place, but my curiosity drove me to explore it a little bit first. Looking around the corner of the building, I could see a wide courtyard. It looked deserted. I walked out to it, still wary but starting to relax. There seemed to be no one else around.

I rounded the next corner and was suddenly pinned to the ground.