A risky gig!

Cowan picked up a meat cleaver from a butcher bench and started playing with it. He tossed it, high up in the air and hazardously caught the spinning blade with his other hand.

"You know me, Haywood. Throw me something risky this time, something interesting and a bit of a challenge!"

Haywood refrained from using the phrase "that is not a toy" for the thousandth time and sighed. "Oh sure, kid. Still in a hurry to the gallows huh?"

He riffled through his contracts. If an outsider were to read these pieces of paper he would only have seen strange symbols and gibberish. But this was a complex cipher that only a handful of people in Tharros could read.

"Well, I might have something just like that. Something really interesting. And downright lethal if you ask me..."

Cowan looked intrigued.

"Your goal is to retrieve an object. And this object in question is ..." Haywood paused and looked around his shoulders, lowering his voice. "The crosier!"

"What is that? Sounds like some a noble woman's undergarment."

"My gods, Cowan! Didn't your mother teach you anything? Have you never been to Regency Day?"

"Nope, I spent my childhood pickpocketing and chasing girls," Cowan said, not letting the reminder of his traumatic upbringing and lack of formal education dent his splendid self-confidence. "And you know very well that Regency Day is the busiest day of the year for a thief. Crowded streets, empty houses, everybody drunk, almost too easy," he added.

Haywood continued. "Well, the crosier is basically a golden rod..."

"Oh, already got one of those," Cowan interrupted.

Haywood looked irritated. "Yes, and one day it will get you killed. Please pay attention, kid! Now, this particular golden rod happens to be the possession and prime symbol of the Regent. Now please tell me you know who Hugo Dacca is!"

"Sure, who hasn't heard of Horny Hugo?"

"Good. Well, rumour has it that some thief stole the crosier from the keep a few days ago. That means someone in the city is sitting on it, waiting to make a move. But a mysterious client desperately wants it before that happens, and more importantly, this client is paying a king's ransom for it."

Cowan grinned. "Oh, shouldn't be to hard. Can't be worse than that time we pinched that book from that conjurer's castle."

"I wouldn't be so cocky, kid. Practically the whole underworld is in on this little treasure hunt. And Dacca's agents are everywhere, not to mention all the other bigwigs who's after it. So you'd better bring your cloak and dagger to this one."

Haywood scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Cowan. "Here's what it looks like anyway. But I have no idea where to look. But there is some kind of disturbance going on in the Kettle, you might want to investigate."

Cowan looked at the sketch and folded it up in his pocket. He then jammed the meat cleaver down into the bench with a bang and gave Haywood an untidy salute before dashing off.

"And be careful, kid," the old man said, but Cowan was already gone.