Jake actually came to enjoy his life as a rapscallion thief in To’phoro’s gang in the city of Ubal. Of course, he still often longed to be home, back in his own country, or world, or whatever it was, and he missed his Mum frequently. But it wasn’t so bad being a thief. By day, they spent a lot of time just sleeping, eating, and lazing around, playing games or getting into fights with one another. The most that they would ever do in the daytime, if they were bored or fancied a wander, would be to go out into the city and walk around, scouting for good places to rob, occasionally pinching a snack from an unwary street vendor. And of course there was the odd scuffle with a rival gang, another of the groups of young vagrants that took residence in the city. Though for the most part these did not result in much more than a few bruises and scrapes, maybe a couple of broken bones, and the different gangs kept pretty well to their own territories.

Their real work, however, took place at night, which is why they slept or lolled around during the day. Under cover of dark, the boys would sneak or break into storehouses or dwellings that they had sized up the day before, making the most of the opportunities afforded by their occupants being away or oversights in security that they had found. Then they would pilfer money, food, precious items, whatever they could find. Money would usually be spent on more food, a boy posing at one of Ubal’s markets as an errand runner sent by employers to buy groceries for the week. Food was stockpiled carefully back at their alleyway ‘base’, rationed strictly by To’phoro, used to reward especially daring thefts and hence often fought over. Precious items were sold wherever possible for as much money as possible.

But really, thefts of the kind that Jake had first carried out, where the aim was to steal some particular precious object of interest, were rare, the exception rather than the rule. Usually it was To’phoro who instigated them, but they were not always successful. The book that Jake had been required to steal from the family that night for his initiation theft, for instance, which had so fascinated To’phoro and aroused his curiosity while he was unable to have it, had turned out to be a massive disappointment to him.

“So what’s in it, what does it say?” To’phoro had asked Jake on the night he had stolen it, after they had arrived back at base and the others had calmed down and settled in to sleep for the morning.

“Look for yourself,” said Jake, handing him the book.

“Don’t be stupid!” said To’phoro, offended. “I can’t read!”

“Oh, right...” Jake wondered why the boy had been so interested in a book when he couldn’t even read it. It was lucky that Jake could. Maybe To’phoro knew that, and had been waiting for someone who could read to come along before he stole it.

“Well it’s a bit weird,” said Jake. “It just seems to be full of a bunch of old stories. About a load of places and people that I’ve never heard of.”

“Huh. Read me some of it.”

Jake did not appreciate the bossy command, but he had grown used to this sort of thing from To’phoro, who demanded respect from everyone in the gang as the leader. He started to read from the first page.

“When Mashal was made by the One True King, it was made in light. Its people were made free, but some turned from the light, to darkness, and withdrew from the One True King. The greatest of these was Echthros, who became the ruler of the land of Shul, over the western sea. Those faithful to the light remained in the land of Larakia, over the eastern mountains. For those undecided, who remained in the middle, was made the land of Dahma, caught between Shul and Larakia.”

“Oh,” said To’phro. “What a pile of nonsense. It sounds like a kids’ fairy tale.”

“It is pretty strange,” said Jake. “Have you heard of any of those places?”

“Well yeah, obviously. ‘Dahma’ is the name of our country, where Ubal is, isn’t it? In Mashal. I’ve never heard of no ‘Shul’ or ‘Larakia’ though. Or about any of this One True King and light and darkness stuff. What a load of nonsense. Read me another bit.” Jake flicked through the pages and chose a passage at random from somewhere near the middle. He began to read again.

“In the year that Avmelek, the Twelfth Steward King of Larakia, died, I saw a Seeing. I saw the One True King lofty and raised up, clothed in a robe that filled the House of Kavod. He touched my mouth with fire and said ‘I am giving you a message to proclaim to the people of Dahma. You are to go into Dahma and point the way back to Larakia, back to me.’”

“Boring!” said To’phoro. “I don’t believe this! I thought the book was going to contain something about making money, or weapons, or how to get put in charge of a gang, or at least some sort of recipes or something. Not a bunch of boring old stories! That family spent so much time reading it you’d think it would have something important to say!”

“Yeah, it is weird…” said Jake.

“Well, at least I know what is now. Hopefully the next thing we steal will be more interesting or useful. Anyway, well done for passing your initiation and all that, Jake.”

At this To’phoro skulked off to go and boss someone else around for a bit, before going to sleep himself.

The really weird thing was that Jake was actually quite intrigued by the stories in the book. That day, while everyone else eventually went to sleep, he stayed up, continuing to read the book. It actually seemed to be a collection of lots of smaller books, with odd names like “Beginning”, “Rescue,” “Devotion” and others that appeared to be named after the main characters in them. Jake had not really enjoyed school, but now that he was away from it and living with a gang of thieves he discovered that he actually missed reading and learning things from time to time (just a little bit). He stayed up and read the whole of the first book, “Beginning”, which was about these places, Dahma, Larakia and Shul, and how they came to be.

Over the next few weeks, he kept the book and continued to read from it, secretly, hiding it from the other boys so that they would not mock him for it. He got into the habit of reading it a little when he first woke up in the evening, before everyone else got up, or last thing in the morning, after everyone else went to sleep. As he did so, he found that more and more he could not stop himself thinking of the family that he had stolen the book from. There had been a father, a mother, and from their scouting trips he knew that they had a little boy and a little girl as well. The father had looked at him with such anger, fear and confusion when he had caught him for a moment at their front door. But then, when he had recognised that Jake was only a boy, there had been something else in his face as well. Eventually he realised what it was.

There had been pity.