This is part two of the Republic of Thieves Read Along. If you happened to miss part one you can just click here. As in part one, I won’t go into too many details and it contains spoilers. The next read along will be the last.
The book continues with the journey of Locke and Jean. They arrive to Karthain and meet with Nikoros who is on the Deep Roots party standing committee and practically will do whatever Locke wants. He takes them to get measurements for a new wardrobe and then to Tivoli’s Countinghouse to get the money assigned to them to complete their job. After that, Nikoros takes them to Josten’s Comprehensive Accommodations which is the headquarters of Deep Roots affairs (Deep Root is the political party that they are hired to make sure wins) and where they will be staying during their time in Karthain. They meet up with Josten who is the owner of the inn. During their short time in Karthain, Locke has already started to make plans and give orders.
They first encounter Sabetha (although they didn’t know it was her at the time) while they were trying to resolve the tax related issues that were facing Josten once they arrived. They knew this was the works of Sabetha so they went to the court to sort things out. While they were there Sabetha, disguised as an old woman, bumped into Locke and then accused them of stealing. Locke and Jean managed to get out of it and clear Josten from the charges but then Locke found a piece of paper in his pocket from Sabetha requesting a meeting.
They meet up and it’s clear that Locke still has strong feelings for Sabetha and she uses it to trick them again. She drugs Locke and sends around 20 people against Jean so when Locke awakes he finds himself and Jean on a ship sailing out of Karthain. I really thought this was funny and very unexpected. Of course the guys managed to get back to Karthain but are now 10 days behind. So they start to speed up their plans.
Locke meets with Sabetha a couple of times after that and in the last one Patience shows up as well and tells them that she knows where Locke originally comes from. She said that Locke is a mage and a gifted one (that was quite the surprise) and he was Patience’s mentor and friend but after his wife’s death he wanted to find a way to bring back the dead and it seems he succeeded by using magic to steal a little boy’s body and move his soul into it. She said that his memories were lost so he doesn’t remember any of this. Locke claims he doesn’t know any of this and doesn’t believe her but Sabetha got upset and left. I thought this part was a very interesting twist and I would not have expected Locke being a mage at all. I wonder if this is true, but why would Patience make this up and I wonder whether Locke would later remember any of it if it were. And I don’t understand why Sabetha got upset and left, if she trusts Locke she would know that he was telling the truth when he said he doesn’t remember or know any of this.
In the Interludes, Chains sent the whole gang to Espara to take part in a play for a guy he knows called Moncraine. During their stay, they rehearse for the play called The Republic of Thieves. In these chapters, we get to know how the relationship between Locke and Sabetha evolved. I didn’t enjoy the rehearsal parts very much I thought it could have been reduced a little.
From the previous read along some of my questions have not been answered yet, I have added a couple of more that I think will be answered by the end of the book.
- We still don’t know why Sabetha left the gang. I think we’ll find out in the interludes by the end of the book.
- Chains died but no mention of how and when.
- Falconer has no role in this book so far and I doubt he’ll make an appearance.
- I wonder what Locke will do next after what Patience told him and whether Sabetha will come around.
What did you think about these chapters?