After settling down in their room, they inquired about dinner. The innkeeper informed them that there was not much on offer at the Angry Boar. Miss Charlotte's down the way, however, had the best food from here to Leona. So, they walked down the little road through town passing by the butcher, the blacksmith, and the tanner. Miss Charlotte’s sat at the crossroads of two main streets in the central market area, a prime location. Even from the outside, Satchel could tell that the tavern was a lively and inviting place. The smoky scents of a large fireplace and cooking meat blended with those of aged wine and good ale. The inviting mixture of smells drifted from the open door and wafted into their nostrils, and they suddenly realized how hungry they were.

  They stepped inside and were met with the low roar of busy conversation across the large open room. Nearly all the tables were full. Serving girls moved this way and that, taking food orders, serving ale, laughing at bad jokes and wiping down tables. The news of troublemakers in town clearly hadn’t fazed the patrons of this place. What struck Satchel the most was the variety in the type of patrons: old, young, fat, skinny, dark, light, rich, poor. And all of them laughing, talking, eating, and drinking as though these differences didn't exist.

  Jarek, Addie, and Satchel took a table near the large stone fireplace at one end of the room. Within a few minutes, a girl with nut-brown hair and a cute face full of smiles came by. She offered them a myriad of hearty meals such as roasted lamb glazed with an apricot sauce, vegetable beef stew, and pork chops topped with some kind of cheese. It all sounded good to Satchel, but in the end, he asked for a steak with eggs. The serving girl winked at Satchel after he ordered which made him blush. Addie decided on honeyed chicken, and Jarek ordered a plate of sausages and a pint of ale.

  After the girl left, Addie said, “It’s strange to see a place like this in the middle of nowhere.”

  “On the contrary, it makes perfect sense,” said Jarek. “It sits on a major road through the Hegemony.”

  “I like it,” said Satchel.

  “Easy to see why,” said Jarek with a smile and a nod to the serving girl.

  Satchel smiled back. The young thief hadn’t seen this side of his mentor. He wondered why Jarek never showed it much.

  Their meal arrived, and it tasted even better than anything Satchel had ever eaten. The juiciness of the steak filled his mouth with flavor. He took his time, savoring each mouthful. All three of them were full by the time they finished.

  They stayed a while longer and were treated to songs from a traveling musical troupe.

  It was late into the night by the time they left Miss Charlotte’s. Jarek had too much to drink, and Addie and Satchel had to help him walk back to the Angry Boar. The innkeeper was about to lock the door when they arrived. He chuckled at the sight of Jarek and shook his head as he let them in. Once in the room, Jarek flopped onto the bed and didn’t move.

  “He’s enjoyed himself more than usual,” remarked Satchel.

  “I hope he gets a nasty headache after making us carry him,” said Addie, rubbing her shoulder.

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  “Don’t be sore. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time.”

  “Hm.”

  Addie moved to the door, turned to Satchel, and motioned to the door. He gave her a quizzical look but complied, nonetheless.

  After carefully closing the door behind them, she turned to him and said, “We have a score to settle.”

  Satchel blinked at her. “Right now?”

  “You cost me a few thousand cesteres. You’re going to pay me back, or I take it out on your body.”

  “How am I going to do that?”

  “Steal it. Earn it. I don’t care. But, by the end of this trip, I’m getting what’s owed, one way or another.” She stepped closer. “Or you could always just take the items back from the old man and give them to me.”

  Jarek’s words to him before they left Ire came floating back. Satchel didn’t want to think of Addie that way. All thieves had a healthy level of greed, but to stoop this low?

  Satchel weighed his options. He didn’t have a ten cesteres to his name, let alone a thousand. She had a right to be angry with him, and, though loath to admit it, she would beat Satchel in a stand-up fight. Stealing from Jarek was out of the question. Stealing that much money within two weeks was next to impossible even on the best day in Ire, let alone out on the road. An idea struck him.

  “Snag,” he said. "We'll settle it with Snag."

  Addie grunted. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am. If I win, you let it go, and we’re even.”

  “Fine,” she huffed. “If I win, I get what I want, and I get to beat you into the ground.”

  The Tirian Thieves’ Guild had long ago established the game of Snag as a way to settle disputes between thieves. Itcould only be employed under certain scenarios. Luckily, being on opposite sides of a heist was one of them.

  According to the rules, the players were bound by whatever stakes they named on pain of lost credibility and even death, depending on the circumstances. If Addie refused to play, it meant that the matter was not important enough and she forfeited payment to Satchel. By proposing to settle things through the game, it gave Satchel a way to make up for disrupting her job. However, it was still a gamble; Addie was good at the game.

  “The stakes are set then,” said Satchel.

  Addie nodded.

  They crept along the hallway and into the inn’s large front room, staying as quiet as possible. They crept to one of the windows in the main room and climbed down into the narrow alley between the Angry Boar and the neighboring tailor shop.

  The rules for Snag were simple and could be played by any number of thieves, though it usually only involved two. It had to be played at night. Each thief had until a hundred-count to move throughout the city and find a hiding place. Once done, they attached a marker of some kind, establishing a “hideout.” Markers could be a neckerchief, a leaf, a jar, whatever they could find, but it had to be obvious.

  At the start of the game, no thief knew what the other’s marker would be. The trick was you had to carry the same thing on your body. If you used a neckerchief to mark your hideout, you had to carry one as well and of the same color. The marker you carried was called the Pouch.

  The goal of the game was to capture both the hideout marker and the Pouch from the opponent using any means necessary. That usually meant that a thief had to learn the identity of the other’s Pouch. In most games, one thief would pick the pocket of the other, or take it by force and then look for the hideout. The game continued until either one person took their opponent’s Pouch and Marker, or dawn arrived, whichever came first.

  “You ready?” Addie asked as they stood in the alley.

  “Are you?”

  “Funny. I seem to remember winning our last game.”

  “It is funny because you never actually found the hideout even after you cheated.”

  Addie kicked at him and missed. “Brat!”

  Satchel rolled his eyes. “Just start the countdown. And don’t forget, the game starts after the hundred-count, not before. No cheating this time.”

  “It’s only cheating if you get caught,” she said in sing-song voice. “All right, here we go. Five...four...threetwoonego!”

  Addie shot down the alley like an arrow.

  “Can’t help but be a cheat, can you?” Satchel mumbled as the girl’s laughter disappeared around the corner.