Chapter I

Thick as Thieves

Victoria

It was sweltering. My useless husband continued around, but never actually did his damn job. Take the necklace and run, you fool! Why do you wait so? I thought, as he passed the cart again. Surely the owner had noticed this odd behavior. Finally James plucked it from the stand and scurried to me.

Only moments later I heard the foolish vender shout out for the authorities. The guards quickly followed us. I sighed and grabbed his arm, pulling him into a side street. The stupid man did not know how to do anything other than steal. I lead him through the streets quickly, but it seemed as though they were waiting for us everywhere we went. Finally we had to dash down the center of the road, knocking down people on either side, but they already had us. A huge guard grinned as he grabbed my arm and pulled me in. They dragged us away to the Palace. I knew there could be no trial in Voltera, but I was sure that they were leading us that way. Stupid James muttered about not wanting to die, ignorant of our direction.

Soon we were kneeling with shackles draped all over us before King Aro. He had summoned us. Many guards stood around us, to protect the King.

"I suppose, you're wondering why I've brought you here," He mused.

"Yes, Your Highness," I answered. I tried to act humble. James said nothing. I was always the one who talked us out of trouble.

"I've called upon you for a special task. No other thieves have escaped the Voltera guards so well, and for so long! Brilliant James! Won't you share with your King how you did accomplish it?" He asked, pretending to be a confident to James.

"As a magician does not tell his tricks, I shall not tell mine," James answered quite seriously. The pig did not know a thing about tricks; it was I, who made us disappear while James took the risks. I made our escapes possible and I made our current situation, too, I suppose. Aro looked pleased none the less.

"You shall do your greatest trick yet, magician, for me. You shall steal me a princess from the land of Forks, and you shall be paid handsomely for it," he said. Two guards with large, purple, velvet sack emerged and dumped the contents of each sack in front of us. Gold coins glittered before us and I felt my eyes grow wide. Handsomely indeed! "Your charges shall be cleared and you may even have the brat or sell her if it pleases you," Aro continued. I began to feel deceit.

"And if we refuse, my Lord?" I asked.

"If James should refuse then you had best say your goodbyes, for you shall see no morrow, Woman," he said condescendingly as he glared at me. "James?" he asked.

"We shall see that the princess is gone, Your Highness," he answered. I shall see to it, I thought.

"Very good. You will report back to me in a fortnight," he commanded.

"A Fortnight!" I exclaimed. "That is too little time, Your Highness, not the best of thieves could accomplish it!"

"But you shall, or you shall be hanged," he answered, and the guards removed us. I was already thinking of some way for James and I to steal the brat.

Night had just fallen. The guards' shifts would be ending and we had made sure to delay one of the night men. We scurried up the wall to the window and entered the princess's room quickly. It was huge and in the moonlight a small crown glittered with jewels. It was silver or maybe white gold. The long white shear curtains shivered with the wind that we had let in. Every surface in the room was covered in piles of children's toys. The brat was spoiled rotten already. James and I dashed to the crib. The little princess was not asleep as we had expected. She stared up at us with huge brown eyes. The space between her light colored eyebrows wrinkled. She opened her mouth, but I had already grabbed a pillow. I stuffed it into her tiny pale fact. A muffled noise escaped the pillow and the door opened.

"Oh, Isabella! You'll have me up all night!" the Queen complained as she entered. She gasped as she looked up and found us there with her precious Isabella. James withdrew his dagger and stabbed her in the chest. She sank to her knees. "Help Isabella… someone… please," she breathed. She clutched James' ankle and tried to keep him from leaving with her little Isabella. He kicked her away from him and turned back to the window.

We left the same way we came. At the base of the window there was a guard again. The man was facing away from us and James quietly dropped on to the balls of his feet and held up the dagger. The man tensed a little and half turned before the dagger sank into his chest. He tumbled down the side of the building. We climbed the next wall down, but here the guard was distracted by the body that had just fallen in front of him and by the shouts of men below. We stabbed him, too, but kept him from falling over the edge. We moved around to practically the other side of the building here we climbed down another level. Finally we stood at the base of the huge castle. Even a small country like Forks had a magnificent Palace for their Royal Family. We hid as the guard passed again. It was far enough away that the other guards were just arriving on here to tell him to look out for us. They knew the princess was missing and that the Queen had been killed with the two guards. We escaped into the forest. We needed to be long gone by morning or they would surely find us.