Vow of Thieves

Two weeks before Kazi’s imprisonment, she and Jase are only a few days from Tor’s Watch after a two-month absence. After Venda’s liaison with the newly recognized Tor’s Watch kingdom, Kazi must ensure a smooth transition as Tor’s Watch and Hell’s Mouth separate from Eislandia. The queen has also told her she must destroy any documents related to weapon creation written by Jase’s hired scholars.

During their travels, Kazi and Jase share secrets and stories. Kazi reveals her worries that Jase’s family will not accept her after she took him at knifepoint. She mentions losing her mother at six, but Jase reminds her that Wren and Synové were always her family, and now the Ballengers are, too.

Kazi and Jase discuss Beaufort’s betrayal—he was a traitor against the Queen of Venda in the previous book, Dance of Thieves—and Kazi’s lingering fear of Zane, the Ballenger employee and Previzi driver who kidnapped her mother 11 years ago. To distract Kazi, Jase shares Ballenger’s history, and they trade riddles. Suddenly, they spot a Valsprey, a highly valued messenger bird, shot from the sky.

Kazi and Jase find the dead bird and read the message attached to its leg. It is a plea for help, stating that Jase’s brother, Samuel, is dead and someone is banging on the door. The message ends abruptly, and Jase suspects his sister Jalaine may have written it, though he dismisses it as a hoax.

As they journey on, Jase recounts the Ballengers’ violent history and says he hopes to change it.

Jase wonders if his presence could have saved Samuel and remembers a similar incident with his father. Kazi realizes that a Vendan settlement will become part of Tor’s Watch, and together, they wonder optimistically about the future.

Kazi and Jase arrive at Tor’s Watch, discovering that the fortress is severely damaged. Jase rushes forward on his horse, but he retreats upon hearing arrows. He tells Kazi to run, but an arrow hits him in the chest. Kazi dismounts from her horse and fights cloaked assailants who are trying to seize Jase. She commands Jase’s horse to flee, and it obeys, carrying away an unconscious Jase.

The attackers turn on Kazi, pulling a hood over her head. She continues to fight, killing at least three assailants. Some pursue Jase, while others tie up Kazi. Before losing consciousness, Kazi realizes that one of the attackers is Jase’s cousin, Paxton.

Jase catches glimpses of the unfolding chaos before losing consciousness. Falling from the horse, Jase knows he is dying. He sends a prayer to Kazi, urging her to flee and understand his love for her.

Kazi battles delirium in her prison cell as the stab wound in her stomach slowly festers. Her captors provide minimal sustenance, leaving her weak. After some time, medicine accompanies her daily rations, prompting Kazi to question its source. Eventually, several heavily armed guards force open her cell, demanding she leave with them.

The guards escort Kazi to bathe and change before meeting their general. Weakness overwhelms her as she struggles to walk, yet she manages to pilfer a knife from one of the guards. Led through a bustling room, Kazi realizes she is in Hell’s Mouth but surrounded by unfamiliar soldiers. She spots a familiar face, Oleez, but Oleez avoids eye contact with Kazi.

The soldiers present Kazi to General Banques. He threatens to hang Kazi like other Ballenger co-conspirators and demands information about the horses. She truthfully replies that she told them to run. Paxton interrupts, presenting Jase’s signet ring on a severed hand, claiming they found his hyena-mauled body. Overwhelmed by this information, Kazi faints.

Kazi awakens in a lavishly furnished room where a woman offers her broth, explaining the king’s desire for her recovery. Wrestling with Jase’s death, Kazi dons his signet ring.

King Montegue of Eislandia arrives, apologizing for General Banques’s brash conduct earlier. The king prioritizes her nourishment and summons a healer.

Kazi is ushered in to see King Montegue, pondering his transformation from a hapless monarch to a shrewd, contemplative leader. Montegue reveals that Hell’s Mouth was attacked by a faction seeking control of the arena, which is a lucrative Ballenger-owned trading hub. Instead of safeguarding the populace, the Ballengers extorted protection money, which Montegue suspects was to fund weapons. Banques and the Eislandian army confiscated these arms and quelled the insurgents, maintaining control of the town.

Questioning the army’s presence, Kazi learns they are mercenaries and that Montegue has assumed authority over the arena. The Ballengers retreated to their vault deep within a mountain and Montegue contemplates using their formidable weapons to breach it. While asserting his control over the town, he acknowledges resistance from Ballenger loyalists. He urges Kazi to publicly announce that Jase was executed in Venda for his transgressions.

Montegue contends that publicly announcing Jase’s execution in Venda provides a more appropriate conclusion than the truth and offers closure to the town’s people. He maintains that the ambush was aimed solely at Jase, not Kazi.

Kazi vehemently objects, brandishing a pickle fork, aware that the king’s demise would mean her own. Guards, including Paxton, intervene, urging her to relent. Finally, Montegue directs Kazi to look outside, prompting her to lower the fork.

Jase thinks he hears the sound of water flowing over stones, only to realize it is the sound of his own breath.

Kazi observes two children playing in the courtyard. They are Lydia and Nash, Jase’s youngest siblings, aged seven and six. She argues that keeping them violates Alliance rules, but Banques insists they are under King Montegue’s jurisdiction. Banques warns Kazi that if she harms the king, his cabinet, or soldiers, or is found outside her room without an escort, steals anything, or lies to the king, she will have to choose which child dies.

Jase slowly regains consciousness, only to be silenced by Kerry of Fogswallow, a young boy from the Vendan settlement. Meanwhile, King Montegue’s soldiers question Caemus, the settlement leader, about Jase’s whereabouts. Caemus claims he dislikes the Ballengers and will inform the soldiers if he sees Jase.

When Jase awakens again, Caemus is with him and answers his questions. Caemus does not know who brought Jase to them but mentions that the man took Jase’s ring and warned against calling a healer due to surveillance. Caemus explains that fires and raids erupted all over Hell’s Mouth after Kazi took Jase to Venda. An army then took over, using weapons resembling those Beaufort designed for the Ballengers. Jase tries to leave the settlement, but Caemus warns him that he is still too injured and that the Ballengers are hiding in their mountain vault. Jase loses consciousness again.