Chapter One:

A black-gloved hand was raised to a young woman’s face with two fingers tapping her cheek. The young woman held up her other hand and laughed at the stunned faces. For in this hand were the cards called to win the game.

“I win again, boys. I want my payment by tomorrow night. You know who to leave it with.” She placed the cards down and stood up. “And, if you don’t leave the full payment, I know where to find you.” The grin she gave the men was devious.

She walked out, ignoring the glares that followed her out. She walked over to the man behind the bar. “Gin, on the house.” Her voice was smooth and bored as she ordered.

“Won again, I see.” The man laughed and looked at the back room where loud curses were floating out from. “One of these times ya going to run inta’ trouble.” His gruff voice was quiet as he warned her. He bent down and grabbed a bottle of gin, which he then poured into a mug. His one bettle black eye glittered as he handed it to her. “Ya’ should be more careful, Jen. Those boys can play rough.”

Jen laughed, through it was short and dry, humorless. “So can I, Old man. Let them though, I really don’t care. Maybe it’ll be fun.”

The bartender sighed. “Ya’ have a death wish. One of these days ya’ll meet someone better than ya and they’ll kill ya’.”

“Or the theif will have something stolen from her! What would happen if our dear Jen were to fall in love?” A young man cried out in mock fear as he sat down next to Jen.

Jen noted his blond hair was pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, reaching mid way down his back. A few strands fell into his seas green eyes and she itched to brush them back but denied herself this.

Jen glanced down to her drink when he looked up to meet her gaze. Her bottle green eyes sparkled with laughter. “Worry not, my dear Jake. My heart belongs to my job and my job alone.” She glanced up and caught his gaze for a moment before dropping it back down to her drink and murmuring so only she could hear, “For a few more days, anyways.”

At her first set of words Jake clutched his chest in mock pain. “My beloved! Why do you say such things? How they hurt!”

Jen giggled at his theatrics as she looked back to the bartender; picking up the conversation from before Jake had interpreted them. “I can’t die until I steal the Prince’s little toy, Ian. The ‘Pearl’ will be the last thing I steal. Once I steal that, and only then, will I be able to even think of anything else and stop.” Upon hearing this both men stopped what they were doing and stared at her. She didn’t take notice as she continued to stare at her drink. “Once I steal the Pearl, I’m going to stop for good. I’m going to forget all this.”

The two men stared at the young woman who still refused to look up. After a minute Jake spoke up. “What do you mean ‘stop for good’, Jen?” His voice was shaky in it’s hurried whisper.

“I mean that I want to start to live like a normal 19-year-old girl. I want to fall in love with a boy and marry him and have kids and a family and have a normal job. And I want to die an old lady, not risk my life only to die young,” Jen whispered. She glanced up only to meet the astonished gaze of Jake that sent her bottle green eyes back down to now stare at the countertop.

“But what about Zephyr? Are you just going to let that legend die? Are you just going to let her die?!” Jake exploded, his eyes blazing as he processed what she said. “If you were just going to stop stealing what was the point to letting you go, not turning you in? What was the point of training you to not get caught?”

Jan stared at the young man, amazed by what he had said. “You think these past three years have been for nothing? That I’m giving up?” She knew that was what he was hinting at, even if he hadn’t said it. “That by stopping I am killing Zephyr? Letting her die?”

“Yes.”

Jen’s stool clattered to the floor, making all conversation in the bar cease as everyone turned to look at her. The thief glared at the young man, looking like she was ready to punch him. “Then I guess I was wrong about you, Jacob Painter.” She growled before turning around and storming out of the bar.

Jake stared at the empty space next to him for a moment before swearing and getting up. “”I’ll be back, Ian.” He called out as he ran out the door, nearly running over a young man who was opening the door.

The young man approached the bar and pushed back the hood to his cloak. “Who were those two?” He asked after ordering a drink. “And should someone stop the man from going after her?”

Ian laughed, “Ya don’t come down here a lot, do ya’? Everyone here knows Jen and Jake. And we all know that it’s best ta’ not get in their way when they’re fightin’, like now. They always work things out.”

“This is usual?” The man muttered with a frown as he looked back at the door. “It is usual to insult a maiden?”

At this point the entire room, which had maintained its silence from Jen’s outburst a moment or so before, broke into loud, boisterous laughter. The man was confused by the laughter.

When most of the laughter had died down a serving boy spoke up. “Zephyr ain’t no maiden! She the least maiden like girl I know.”

The man look appalled. “You mean she…?”

Ian shook his head cutting off the other male’s thought. “Jen is a maiden in that sense. But she can take betta’ care of herself then most men. No trouble to the best thief in the country. Jen an’ Jake are just being dramatic.”

The man frowned but let it drop. These people would know about this situation better than he. “What does ‘Zephyr’ intend to steal next?”

“The Pearl.” A female’s clear voice rang out to answer his question.

“Jen! Jen-sweetie, come on, slow down.” Jake called after the girl. He waited until she had stopped walking before he walked over to her and looked down at her. “I’m sorry, Jen.”

“You should be! Why does everyone think only about Zephyr? Why is she more important then me? If everyone loves her then she won’t die. She’ll live on in the legends. But now it’s my turn…my turn to live.” Her voice wavered and she refused to look up. “I just want to be normal now.”

Jake frowned slightly as he looked down at her. “Jen? Honey? Are you crying?” He lifted her face and stared a second before pulling the woman into a tight hug and smoothing her hair. “Shhh…I’m sorry. You’re right, you have just as much a right to have a normal life as the rest of us. Calm down, Jen-baby. It’s okay. Calm down.”

Jen and Jake stood there a few minutes, the first being comforted by the second. When Jen had calmed down slightly she whipped her eyes and looked up at Jake. The young man smiled down at her and ruffled her hair. “How about we head back to Ian’s and get another drink?” He asked carefully.

Jen nodded and allowed Jake to pull her back to the bar. Jake sat her down next to the young man that had been inquiring about the situation before, and ordered the thief another gin.

Jen quickly down it and asked for another. As Ian filled her mug the young redhead next to her looked over, surprised. Jen didn’t look up though and he quickly looked back down again. He was thinking he should learn to mind his own business when he heard the woman start to speak to the man next to her.

“How hard do you think it will be? I mean you’ve been inside the castle before, so you should know.” Her voice was not lowered, though it was obvious that she was talking about stealing. And as the young man thought about it, everyone seemed to know what she did and talked about it freely, as if everyone knew the girl’s secret.

“I don’t know. I know it’s in the Prince’s private suite though. I’ve never been allowed there. No one has. Neither guard nor girl. Prince is a bit of a prude, the way I see it.” The comment earned a few snickers from the men in the tavern and a couple sighs from the females. The only one whose reaction was different was the new comer’s. The redhead blushed and stared into his drink pensively. But this went unnoticed as everyone was listening to the thief and her friend.

Jen thought for a minute, her green eyes resting on the far wall. “But people have been around it? What about servants? A cleaning maid? I need some kind of layout of at least the area around his room.”

The new comer piped up here. “The prince doesn’t have anyone clean his room. He doesn’t want his room messed up or anything to be taken from it.”

At this everyone turned around and looked at him. Jen’s eyes sparkled at this bit of information and she grinned before turning back to the crowd. “Well it seems our Prince doesn’t trust us with his precious little toy. Why if we allow him to keep this he won’t allow a girl in his room and we’ll have no heir to the throne after him. Or I can do my job and save us all from this future.” The way she spoke was over dramatic and everyone in the room was laughing but the red head, who had a deep scowl on his face.

Jake took notice of his scowl and pointed it out to Jen. “It seems our new friend doesn’t like our jests at the Prince’s expense.” He leaned past his friend to stare at the smaller male. “Tell us, friend, what’s your name?”

Alarm filled the male’s eyes at this question and the stares that were facing him. Dread filled his every fiber as he stammered out his name. “E-Evan.”

Jen laughed and the male’s face flushed as he ducked his head into the hood of his cloak. “Why this poor person has been cursed with our Prince’s name. I pray that you were born while the Prince was young and no one knew of his flaws of hiding and falling in love with toys and not people.”

“I…I am the same age as the Prince you speak of.” Evan said as he finished his drink and paid for it. “But I beg you, tell me when you plan to steal this toy of his.”

A hush fell in the room at the young man’s daring question as Jen turned slowly to look at his hidden face. “Brave of you to ask such a question but I am afraid only my…partners and I know the date of this thieving. But I am intrigued by why you want to know.”

He stared at her with golden-brown eyes for a long moment before he spoke. “I was wondering when I should be out of town by. The Prince will search everywhere and everyone if the Pearl is stolen.” He stood up to leave when Jen and Jake both reached out and stopped him.

“You seem to know a lot about the Prince. Why don’t we buy you another drink and you can tell us what all you know. And in exchange I’ll tell you when it will be best to leave by so they don’t suspect you of being part of this.” Jen smiled at him.

Evan was stunned by her sudden kindness and her smile but only shook his head. “I’m afraid one drink is my limit. And I do have places I need to be. Besides, I have already dried up my stores of knowledge about the Prince.” With that he, gently, pushed past Jen and Jake and left the tavern behind, making a mental note to talk to the head of the guard about Guardsmen Jacob.

Jen raised an eyebrow as she lowered herself back into her seat, still looking at the closed door. Well…That was interesting. And slightly helpful. She turned back to the group of people around her. “Servants, cleaning maids, place helpers, come forth and tell me what you know about the layout around his room. Remember, this is to help our Prince, not harm him. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Several hours, and drinks later, Jake and Jen left Ian’s tavern, laughing at each other. They both believed they had gathered as much information as they could and were as ready as they could be to steal the Pearl by the days end.

As they passed people they ignored the comments about how, once again, the two of them were drunk and that they were going to give in tonight. They had heard these types of things in some form or another for as long as they had been friends. Everyone knew they were going to end up together as soon as Jake became a guard and Jen settled down and became a proper low end of town lady. Even Jake and Jen knew this.

And that was why, hen they sat at the edge of town, they listened to a bard with Jen curled up in Jake’s hold. Jake whispered the words of the tale the bard sang of. As Jen listened she heard his longing and matched it to her own. But neither did anything as the bard finished his song of the two lovers.

Suddenly, as the bard hit the last note, Jen stood up with a fierce look on her face. She took Jake’s hand and tugged him up. He stumbled and was confused at her actions for a moment before his fuzzy brain made the connections. Once he understood he pulled her along to her small cottage nearby.