I bent down to place the statuette on the floor, at an angle between the table and the floor. The heel of my shoe struck the center of the statuette and it cracked easily, opening slightly in the middle. I picked it up impatiently and looked inside. The brown end of a cloth pouch was sticking out, longing to land in my hands.

I tried to pull it out, but it balked, obviously too full, so I brought the statuette close to the wall and broke it after a few kicks. Without the slightest hesitation, I took out the bag and untied it.

Holy crap! My poor, penniless brain could not comprehend what my eyes saw. Inside were at least twenty large, polished rubies. I was no connoisseur of gems, but from the looks of it, each one had to be worth more than fifty gold coins. Anyway, this wasn't the time to count. However, I hesitated.

It was only natural that I should take one. The agreed price of twenty-five gold for such a haul was nothing short of derisory.

As if of its own volition, one of the red gems passed through my hand in less than a second, then disappeared into the special pocket sewn to my underpants, the one I'd sewn for such occasions. In fact, I had already come to the conclusion that this ruby had never existed in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

That was the end of my work, and I left immediately without compromising the mission by stealing any more items. The plan was to leave the house conspicuously empty-handed and waste no time inside. I crossed the corridor in a hurry, descended the stairs almost as quietly as I had climbed them, and trotted on tiptoe to the front door. Even if the old lady had heard me, I'd be miles away before she could drag herself there.

I stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath, both to gather my courage and to calm myself. Finally, I stepped out with such a serene expression on my face that even if the owner of the house had seen me at that moment, he would have mistaken me for an ordinary boy going out to do his boring daily chores.

Damn it! I glanced towards the corner where Chrissam was supposed to be waiting for me, to make sure with my own eyes that everything was all right. He wasn't there. However, there were two Karcepian guards approaching nervously on foot. Unfortunately, one of them caught my eye, albeit briefly. I immediately lowered my head and took off in a slight hurry to the opposite end of the street. Not more than five meters had passed before two more guards came towards me from the first intersection in front of me. One had a halberd on his back, the other a crossbow.

Fear swept over me like a spring rain, sudden and devastating. Had I been in this situation a few years ago, I would have panicked or petrified on the spot. This time, however, I kept my composure and walked straight ahead, moving out of the way a bit to put as much distance as possible between myself and the approaching guards, and not to attract their attention with too unusual an attitude. To my horror, they also changed direction in response to my movement, blocking my path. It all happened in a matter of seconds. The man behind reached for the crossbow at his back. It was already loaded. The one closest to me lunged forward aggressively, grabbing his halberd with both hands. Not more than three meters separated us.

At the same moment, someone ten meters behind me shouted, "DON'T MOVE!"