King of Thieves (Book 3)

𝓒𝓱.2 ~ 𝓡𝓸𝔀𝔂𝓷 𝓡𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓽

Rowyn heard the many stories of the great Caine Reinhart. Cruel and fierce and on a mission to become the King of Thieves. He nearly obtained the Jewels of Arondale for himself, but the rest of the story was unknown. Rowyn was proud of his little brother hearing these stories but Caine was nothing like the man in the tales after hearing he died for his crimes.

What happened to Caine the Cruel? What happened to the Royal Jewels? Rowyn was disappointed in his little brother after hearing the truth about the Jewels from drunken King's men at the Lion's Den Tavern. But there was a whisper in the shadows Caine was still alive and well.

After some time, Rowyn and his men found Caine's trail which led them to a field, finding the man heading towards an abandoned mill factory. Scrawny, weak and nothing like the stories of the great and ambitious Caine Reinhart.

"Where are you taking me!?" Caine asked as he thrashed on the back of Rowyn's horse, finally conscious again.

Rowyn did not respond as they rode through the forest surrounding the kingdom. When they reached a clearing, he whistled, signalling for his men to stop in the middle of the forest. They dragged Caine from the horse, the man groaned in pain as he hit the hard ground below.

"You look exactly like our father, Ivan Reinhart." He said as he looked at his little brother as he struggled to his knees.

"How..." Caine looked at Rowyn as if he were a ghost.

"Ivan was my father, which makes you and I brothers with different mothers of course." He said with a laugh. "Our father sold my mother and I to a band of thugs for a large pouch of gold and a bottle of whiskey. He never came back for us."

He acted like it didn't hurt him knowing his father sold him and raised Caine. It was hard not to take his anger towards Ivan out on his little brother. Hating the man for leaving he and his mother in the hands of brutal men.

"Lucky for you, you were raised by the man and raised to be a thief. I, on the other hand was raised by the thugs. I took a lot of beatings but I  earned my place as leader amongst them." Rowyn gestured to the two men standing behind him. "I earned their respect and now they are loyal to me. They will do whatever I ask without question and would die for me if I asked them to."

"You are telling the truth about you and I being brothers..." Caine whispered as he realized the truth about their father.

"Yes, and I expect the same from you, little brother, because I need to know everything about your precious Guild of Thieves." He admitted as he knelt in front of his brother.

"Why do you want to know about my Guild?" Caine asked in confusion.

"It was your Guild, but from the rumours I have heard of the great Caine Reinhart, you let yourself go and earned yourself quite a reputation, didn't you?" He said, knowing the story of his little brother's failure to steal the Royal Jewels. "And the latest story I heard was you are nothing but a dead man. Nobody is looking for you."

Caine remained silent, not answering his question. This infuriated Rowyn, as did knowing his brother was a sad excuse of a so-called thief. He questioned if the stories of Caine were even true or if they were just made up. What he saw before him was a sad, thin man not a strong, fearsome leader. What happened to make the man turn soft?

"What do you want from me?" Caine whispered, his body sagging in defeat.

"I want to know everything about your thieves and the small Guild you have started." Rowyn smiled and added. "I want to make a thriving empire and be what you could not be."