Dragon-Bound Thief: Teaser Chapter

Dragon-Bound Thief: Part 1

Many readers of my King's series have asked for more from the dragon-bound world. Her is a preview of Dragon-Bound Thief, an epic, three-volume addition to the Chronicles of the Dragon-Bound. This preview is incomplete, only the first chapter of the first book is here. The adventure starts more than forty years after King's Crown. Chaif Tabor is out for revenge . . .

Dragon-Bound Thief, The Trilogy

Book 1: Road to Arkady

Book 2: Dragon-Bound

Book 3: Chains of Straw

by William L. Culbertson

Book 1: The Path to Arkady

Chapter 1

The nighttime rain drummed against the balcony windows of Asgath Eldin's master bedroom—a lonely sound since Asgath Eldin was not there. But Chaif Taibor was. Chaif stood in the middle of the room and tried to orient himself by the faint light from the window. Eldin's safe was in the wall behind the short bookcase off to the right. For the moment, the glowing end of the punk he held in his teeth distracted more than it illuminated. A lantern might have given more light, but he needed both hands free. The ember on the end of the soft wooden stick would give him light for close work in dark spaces.

He edged forward, hand outstretched, feeling for any wayward piece of furniture that might have been moved since his last visit. A flash of lightning dazzled his eyes with an abrupt picture of the room. Chaif captured the momentary image in his memory. Confident now, he took three steps forward and gripped the frame of the bookcase. It rolled easily out from the wall. He crouched down behind it. The faint glow from the punk showed the dim outline of the safe mounted in the wood-paneled wall. On his knees he used the feeble luminescence as well as his sense of touch to explore the safe. Yes, it was just as he remembered from when he had worked on it six months ago.

He could have opened the safe's lock easily since he had installed it. However, when the theft was discovered—and he wanted it to be discovered—an unlocked safe would throw immediate suspicion onto Chaif. No, this robbery dare not appear to have been done by someone who knew about locks nor someone who knew where Eldin kept his money—his ill-gotten money.

Chaif took the short metal bar off the loop on his belt and put the blade end into the gap between the safe's door and the frame. He pried down, bending the safe's casing. He moved the bar a few inches along the frame and pried again. And again, scratching and marring the surface. He wanted it to look as if the burglar knew nothing about the safe except that it was closed.

After he had mauled the outside of the safe sufficiently, Chaif inserted the bar at the proper spot and angle. He hesitated. A sharp tug would break the locking rods, but that would make noise. Eldin's housemaster would be the only one home this evening. He slept in the basement, and his poor old ears should never hear the noise. But Chaif could not be sure. He took the heavy, damp cape from around his shoulders and draped it over the bar and waited. The storm was not part of his plan, but he welcomed its help. Not only had it kept people off the streets, it gave him cover for unusual noises. He waited with his pry bar in place. Lightning flashed again. A few seconds later, thunder rumbled across the city of Silverdale. The snap as Chaif broke the locking bar was lost in the echoes of the storm.