King of Thieves

Father And Son

Meanwhile, in a deep part of the thieves lair, Blaytz had led Lance away from the celebrating group. Pidge, Blue, and Sendak had come along with. The group was walking through a cave with a shallow stream of water flowing through. Blaytz held a torch in his hand as he led the group through the cave.

"I find my son, and lose my enemy. You did your old man proud, Lance," Blaytz said glancing back towards Lance.

"I was just trying to stay alive," Lance snapped back with a glare.

"Ha! If you didn't fight, you would have been killed," Blaytz pointed out as Lance walked past him, Blue on his shoulder. "So says the code of the Forty Thieves."

Lance continued to walk forwards until the group reached a wall with strange markings on it.

"Does this code have any rules that don't end in death?" Sendak asked. Blaytz smiled as he walked past the bird on Pidge's shoulder.

"It's a strict code," Pidge and Sendak turned to one another before they shrugged their shoulders. "But there's one thing that I added. We never hurt the innocent," Blaytz said as he walked up to the wall with the strange markings.

"For future reference, I'm as innocent as the day I was hatched," Sendak said as he gave an "innocent" smile towards the man. Pidge rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Oh brother..." she muttered under her breath.

Blaytz then pulled a brooch off his cape, Lance caught sight of a design engraved onto it, but couldn't make out what it was as Blaytz placed it into a hole in the wall.

"My men don't even know about this place," Blaytz said as the wall slid to the side and opened to reveal a hidden room. Blaytz pulled back the brooch and clipped it back onto his cape, He then stepped into the room and using his torch, lit another torch in the room. "Listen boy, there is a treasure. The Ultimate Treasure," Blaytz said as the others began to walk into the room.

"Ultimate Treasure?" Lance asked in curiosity.

"Compared to this, a pharaoh's tomb is a pauper's grave," Blaytz said as he tossed his torch into a pot of water, the flame extinguishing. "A sultan's fortune nothing but... lunch money! And I am this close to it," Blaytz said as he made a motion with his fingers to show how close he was.

"That's tantalizingly close," Sendak said as he rubbed his wings together, Lance rolling his eyes and sighing.

"But it's on an island that is never in the same place twice," Blaytz said as he opened a closet and started to dig through. It wasn't long before he dug out a rug. "The Vanishing Isle."

"That... would be a problem indeed," Pidge said from beside Lance.

"What is this Ultimate Treasure ?" Lance asked in annoyance.

"The big one, boy," Blaytz said as he unrolled the rug in his hands. The rug design was blue and had a turtle drawn on the middle, in the middle of the turtle was a golden hand drawn. "The Hand of Midas."

"It's just a myth!" Lance said with a rolled of his eyes. He had heard of it like everyone else, but like everyone else, he believed it to be a myth.

"It's not a myth, boy," Blaytz said as he grabbed a lit torch and pulled back a dark blue curtain to reveal stairs that led down to the sea. He then led the group down the stairs and towards the bottom. "It was once right here, look, there's your proof," Blaytz said as he angled the torch to the water to reveal a ship. "From stern to stem, every piece of rigging every peg and board, all of it! Solid gold!"

"Oooh," Blue said as she pounced off Lance's shoulder to look closer at the ship.

"Adopt me Daddy-o!" Sendak cried out as he flew off Pidge's shoulder and down beside Blue. Pidge rolled her eyes with a sigh.