The Price of Thorns

By Tim Susman

Stories and Secrets

In this land where stories are as much a currency as gold or silver, secrets-the stories you don't tell--also have their price. Nivvy the thief keeps many secrets, having left his home for the Thieves Guild, then having left the Thieves Guild-involuntarily-for a life alone. His fortune changes the day Bella, a mysterious woman in an ancient dress, hires him for a nigh-impossible theft: to steal back the kingdom she claims is her own. If Nivvy is equal to this epic task, surely he will be admitted back to proper disreputability in the Thieves Guild.

But Bella has secrets of her own, and her quest is not what it appears to be. As Nivvy uncovers some of the truths behind what he'd dismissed as ancient stories and Bella's improbable connection to those tales, he realizes that this journey is more dangerous than he could have dreamed. If he survives this adventure, merely stealing a kingdom couldn't hold a candle to the rest of the story...