Aaron shifted his arms tighter about himself. He had no idea whether it was day or night, but the room felt cold and he had nothing but his thin clothing for warmth.

“You’re to teach me,” Aaron said.

“That’s stating the bloody obvious. What is it I will teach you?”

He sat down in the middle of the room while still holding the torch aloft. He grunted, and true to his word his back popped when he stretched.

“I don’t know,” the boy said.

“A good start,” Robert said. “If you don’t know an answer, just say so and save everyone the embarrassment. Half-minded guesses only stall the conversation. However, you should have known the answer. I tutored a king, remember? Mind my words. You should always know the answer to every question I ask you.”

“A tutor,” said Aaron. “I can already read and write. What else can an old man teach me?”

Robert’s smile grew in the flickering torchlight.

“There are men trying to kill you, Aaron. Did you know that?”

At first he opened his mouth to deny it but then stopped. The look in his teacher’s eye suggested he think about what he said.

“Yes,” he finally said. “Though I convinced myself otherwise. The Trifect want all the thief guilds dead, and I myself am a member.”

“More than a member,” Robert said as he put his book down and shifted the torch to his other hand. “The heir to Thren Felhorn, one of the most feared men in all of Veldaren. Some say he is the finest thief to walk the land of Dezrel.”

“Is he?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know enough of such matters to have a worthwhile opinion,” Robert said. “Though I know he has lived a long time, and the wealth he amassed in his younger years was legendary.”

Silence came over them. Aaron looked about the room, but it was bare and covered with shadows. He felt as if his teacher waited for him to speak, but he knew not what to say. His gaze lingered on the torchlight as Robert spat to the side.