Dance of Thieves

“Look. Take a good long look and remember the lives lost. Real people that someone loved. Before you go about the task I have given you, see the devastation and remember what they did. What could happen again. Know what is at stake. Dragons eventually wake and crawl from their dark dens. I had seen the urgency in the queen’s eyes. I had heard it in her voice. This wasn’t only about the past. She feared for the future. Something was brewing, and she was desperate to stop it. I surveyed the valley. From a distance, the bones and wagons blended back into a calm sea of green, hiding the truth. Nothing was ever quite what it seemed.”

Kazi is leaving the valley of the Great Battle and she thinks about her mission to prevent it from happening again. She feels the urgency of her task and her comment about hiding things is a metaphor for the rest of the novel where nothing is as it seems, and she must look to find the truth. This quote also introduces the notion of Illarion as a Dragon who must be slain to protect the kingdom, and the final line reminds the reader not to take everything exactly as it is presented. Espionage and Secret Motives will blur the line between appearance and reality.

“He gave over his own kingdom, the queen had told me, and the lives of thousands to feed his greed for more. Hungry dragons may sleep for years, but they do not change their eating habits. He must be found. The dead demand justice, as do the living. Even before I visited the valley of dead, I already knew the cost of lurking dragons, ones who crept through the night, crashing into a world and devouring whatever pleased them.”

Kazi’s mission is to capture the Watch Captain who caused massive carnage in the war and she thinks of him like a dragon. The Dragon is a recurring symbol of evil lying in wait throughout the novel. Kazi's familiarity with evil forces foreshadows the reveal of her traumatic past.

“As far as you can see, this land is ours. Never forget that. It was my father’s and his father’s before that. This is Ballenger territory and always has been, all the way back to the Ancients. We are the first family, and every bird that flies overhead, every breath that is taken, every drop of water that falls, it all belongs to us. We make the laws here. We own whatever you can see. Never let one handful of soil slip through your fingers, or you will lose it all.”

These are Jase Ballenger’s father’s last words and the Ballenger family motto. This outlines their family history as well as Jase’s driving motivation to protect his family and their history, what he will be fighting for the whole novel. Karsen's dying request that Jase protect the family land engages both his son's personal and political senses of duty.

“‘My world is not your world.’ My temples burned and my voice rose. ‘Vendans sit behind their high, safe walls at the far edge of a continent, scribbling out new treaties and training their pretty, smart-mouthed, elite soldiers who have no idea what it’s like to fight to survive!’ I lowered my voice to a growl. ‘And you, Kazi of Brightmist, have no understanding of the trouble you’ve caused me. I should be home with my family, protecting them, and instead I’m out here, chained to you!’”

Jase yells at Kazi when they are first chained together and she accuses him of breaking the law. He explains his position which causes to Kazi rethink her position about Jase and his family. It also is core to his character to always be thinking about his family. As they get to know each other, initially through angry outbursts like this one, Jase and Kazi will both broaden their worldviews and learn how to see things from other perspectives. Jase's words here are also ironic, as Kazi will later reveal that she is painfully familiar with fighting for her survival.

“It had been odd to envy their grief, but I had. I envied the explosion and finality of it–their sobs and tears. At that point, my mother had been gone for five years and I had never grieved her death, never cried, because I never saw her die. Her passing came slowly, over months and years, in the dull bits, pieces, and mundane hours that I worked to stay alive. Day-by-day she faded, as every stall I searched turned up nothing, and another piece of her drifted away. Every hovel and home I snuck into held no part of her, no amulet, no scent, no sound of her voice. The memories of her became disconnected blurred images, warm hands cupping my cheeks […] words that floated in the air, her fingers pressed to my lips. Shh, Kazi, don’t say a word.”

Kazi thinks of watching Wren and Synové mourn their parents’ murders, and Kazi can’t help but be jealous because they got closure. Kazi is motivated by her mother’s disappearance and to find what happened to her and hates the slow time eroding the memories of her which informs her character motivations. Not having closure in her grief makes it more difficult for Kazi to resist trading Illarion for Zane at the climax of the novel.

“‘But you have no defined borders. You aren’t even supposed to be settled in the Cam Lanteux at all. You’re breaking the law. It’s a violation of the ancient treaties. How can you lay claim to all of this?’

‘Well, maybe the ancient treaties never bothered to consult us. Tor’s Watch has been here longer than any of the kingdoms – including Venda. And we do have borders, but maybe our lines are drawn differently than yours. They extend as far as it takes for us to feel secure. We’ve lived by our laws and survived by them for centuries. Venda has no right to be meddling.’”

Jase explained the Ballenger borders and Kazi accuses him of not following the laws because that is what she has been taught. Jase’s perspective is that they were here first and the other kingdoms ignored them and took their territory, which shows their different political viewpoints as well as one of the big political tensions in the novel. Here, Pearson directly explores how Political Unrest has roots in misunderstandings and cultural differences.

“Freedoms are never won once and for all, Kazimyrah. They come and go, like the centuries. I cannot grow lazy. Memories are short. It is the forgetting that I fear.”

The queen fears people forgetting the struggles of the past in the fight for freedom. This is similar to the Ballengers, whose practice is remembering so they don’t forget. Throughout the book, people’s memories shape not only their personal decisions, but communal memories shape countries and battles as well.

“I had always heard the ghosts. Death was no stranger in Venda. He had walked the streets boldly, rubbing his bony elbows against passersby whose cheeks were as gaunt as his own, his wide grin spotting you from afar, whispering, You, you are next. And I would whisper back, Not yet, not today. Everyone in Venda was always just a season away from death, including me, depending on which way death turned, and his frozen grin had longed ceased to frighten me.”

Kazi admits she has the magical ability to see ghosts, and Death. Her awareness of these two things guides her throughout the novel, but also shows how hard it is to survive in Venda and how it shaped her character. The phrase, not yet, not today, is repeated throughout the novel, indicating that Kazi still maintains a survivor's mindset, never taking any day for granted.

“He might be one kind of person out here, but back there, he was the enemy, the lawless head of a lawless family–a family that possibly harbored a murderous war criminal who was a threat to the entire continent, and if they did, he and his family would pay. Here, I might be a girl who had helped him escape from hunters, helped heal his wounds, the girl who loved listening to his stories, but there, in the real world, I was entrusted with a job by the Queen of Venda. I was as loyal to her as he was to his family, and I would betray him when the time came. I would bring his family and dynasty to their knees. His world was about to end.”

Kazi and Jase are approaching civilization and although they have fallen for each other, Kazi reminds herself of their differences and what they face in the real world and why they can’t be a couple. Their mutual secrets and seemingly incompatible political motives lead Kazi to believe that betrayal is inevitable and love is impossible. This dynamic links all three of the novel's major themes, and the Espionage and Secret Motives necessitated by Political Unrest directly influence the struggle between Love and Betrayal.

“Kazi had secrets. She performed a skillful dance around everything we said. Last night I had seen genuine fear in her eyes when she thought I had hurt her friends, but then I saw how she played us too, the fear dissolving and being replaced by something skilled and calculating. It was the same look I had seen in her face when she studied the driver, like in her head she was constructing something solid, stone by stone. Her shrewdness managed to get reparations we didn’t owe out of the deal. Even with her letter we had no guarantee the queen would come, but there was hope and that was a short-term bandage we needed. I’d use it to my advantage for now. Soon we wouldn’t need anyone tossing us crumbs of respect. Soon we’d have a greater share of trade on the continent, and it would be the kingdoms begging for a place at the table with the Ballengers.”

Jase wants to trust Kazi, but he thinks of how she has played him to get what she wants and he can’t trust her fully. It also shows the Ballenger's pride and what motivates Jase, which is his family and getting them to be recognized by the world. If Kazi is in the way of that, he can’t trust her. Jase's emphasis on hope also sets up an unlikely parallel between Kazi and Illarion: Jase must trust both of them to some degree out of the hope that they will ultimately help him attain his goals.

“But as we walked back to the front gate, my mind whirled with this new knowledge that even my own mother hadn’t known. Had my father been a fletcher from Candor? Had he named me? Old wounds split open again, every answer that should have been mine stolen like it was only a cheap trinket to be traded away at market. Thousands of years of history were revered by the Ballengers. My own brief history had been ripped from my grasp. There were a hundred questions I would never be able to ask my mother.”

Vairlyn knows the real meaning of Kazi’s name as well as the language it comes from, which brings up haunting memories of Kazi’s past; Kazi now has knowledge even her mom didn’t know. The Ballengers knowing their history intimately is contrasted by Kazi knowing almost nothing about her own legacy; she hates the feeling and it reopens the wounds of her past.

“I thought about my reaction. I had been afraid. I had felt death in the room. It had rushed over my skin, like a stampeding army of ghosts, and then I saw Jase. He had killed someone–I had known it–and dread had gripped me. My first thoughts had jumped to Wren and Synové, and I realized that what I knew about Jase and what I knew about the Patrei were two different things. The Patrei ruled a different world than the one where Jase and I had roamed. I was still getting to know this other person.”

Jase revealed that he never had Kazi's friends in custody because he doesn’t want her to be afraid of him. Kazi wants to trust him and like him, but the version of Jase in his home versus the wilderness is so different that Kazi is thrown off and has trouble trusting him. She recognizes the tension between his personal feelings and his duty to his realm and people.

“Guilt riddled through me. She had no idea that I’d been forced to help him and that my intent was to use him for my own purposes. My goals and loyalties hadn’t changed. Ever since the queen had asked me to find this fugitive, I had imagined the grand moment I would hand the elusive traitor over. You can make some things right. The moment had grown in my thoughts. It became a color that gleamed behind my eyes, a silver stitch in a wound that would close a gash that had been open for too long or a golden stone in a tall wall that would finally erase my mistakes. I needed to believe that maybe even a worthless little crapcake like me could make a difference that mattered in this world. It became a deep need and I worried–what if the Watch Captain had already vanished? What if he wasn’t here at all? Sometimes people vanished and no matter how badly you wanted to find them, they were never seen again.”

As Vairlyn gives Kazi clothes, Kazi feels guilty because her loyalty is to Venda and she plans to betray the Ballengers. She has a purpose and isn’t going to let anything stand in her away, but her emotions and personal experiences make doing her duty more and more difficult. Still, Kazi holds tight to the possibility of earning redemption, foreshadowing her eventual choice to let Zane go in the climactic showdown.

“‘It’s not about a single Patrei, but the family and those we owe loyalty to. When you swear protection, you don’t go gambling it away for another round of drinks.’

‘You Ballengers hold grudges for a long time. You never forgive?’

‘Just as the gods gave us mercy, we do too. Once. Turn us into a fool a second time, and you pay.’”

Jase explains his family code to Kazi and how the Patrei is obligated to the family; if he does something to endanger them, they can oust him. This moment shows how deeply he takes his oath of protection to heart and illustrates the code the Ballengers live by. Jase's limits on forgiveness also raise the stakes of what he will do when he discovers Kazi's plot.

“My attention went back to Kazi. Disconnected words flooded my head, and I heard my father’s long-ago warning. Choose your words carefully, even the words you think, because they become seeds, and seeds become history. There were words I had avoided even thinking ever since I met Kazi. When my mother asked about her, I only said she was resourceful–a safe, stable word. But now others flowed freely, sown recklessly in my head. I wanted them all to take root, grow, become history–part of my history. Clever, smart, ruthless, determined, brave, devious, loyal, caring. She turned, her eyes grazing the tops of heads, breeze lifting loose strands of hair at her neck, and another word came, beautiful, and it was the only word I could think of, until another one bloomed on its heels, future, and I wondered if it was too dangerous a word to entertain. But I already felt it taking root.”

Jase sees Kazi at the ball and for the first time sees a future with her. Despite their complications and conflicting loyalties, Jase dares to hope they will be together long-term for the first time, signaling a change in their relationship. This relaxing of his guard against her creates the opportunity for intimacy to develop.

“Does she? Loss flooded my throat. It had gripped me today with a fresh, cruel hand, reaching into my heart, tugging, reminding me of what I had lost. When I saw the concern in Vairlyn’s eyes as she looked at my neck, when she shooed me into the house like one of her children to have my injuries tended, I saw the lost moments with my own mother, all the memories I never got the chance to make. That was something else the Previzi driver had stolen from me. Six short years was all I had with her. My mother’s absence hit me in a new, bitter way, because sometimes you can’t begin to know everything you’ve lost until someone shows you what you might have had.”

Kazi struggles with her closeness with the Ballenger family because it brings up memories of her mother and what she doesn’t have. But she still lies to Jase, unable to be vulnerable with him yet, and this moment of missing her mother motivates her intense reaction the next day when she sees the Previzi drivers.

“Today was every hell my father had ever described. I stumbled from one fire to the next. A raid. A betrayal. Kazi pinned beneath the body of a raider, soaked in a pool of blood. The memory punched me again and again. And I still had more business to address. There will be times you won’t sleep, Jase. Times you won’t eat. Times you’ll have a hundred decisions to make and not enough time to make just one. Times a choice will make you feel like your flesh is being peeled from your bones. Times you’ll be hated for the decisions you’ve made. Times you will hate yourself. You’ll be torn a hundred ways. You’ll doubt your decisions and whom you trust, but above it all, you must always remember that you have a family, a history, and a town to protect. It is both your legacy and your duty. If the job of Patrei were easy, I would have given it to someone else.”

Jase is finally realizing the burden of being Patrei. He is stressed by everything that is happening and trying to remember his father’s advice. This and similar flashbacks of advice allow his father to be more present as a character in the narrative, creating a parallel to Kazi's relationship with her missing mother. Both protagonists are metaphorically haunted and motivated by their relationship to a parent they no longer have access to.

“Saying love aloud seemed dangerous. It made it tangible, easier to grasp and break. Or maybe I was just afraid the gods would notice and steal it away. 'The Ballengers will never forget what you did for my brother.' Yes you will, I thought. If you ever find out why I really came here, that I have searched every room of your house and rifled through your private belongings, that I combed through your desk and touched your neatly ordered pebbles, that I was an invader instead of an ally, you will only remember me for that.”

Kazi is afraid to admit she’s in love with Jase because the stakes are too high. Priya finally welcomes Kazi into the family and they trust her, but Kazi knows she might have to betray them and tries to pull back from them, knowing the cost of betrayal is steep. It’s the reality of her job, but she hates to think about it now that it’s personal.

“The man who took my mother was here. Somewhere. And if he wasn’t here today, he’d roll in on a wagon tomorrow, or the next day, and when he did I would do something that would jeopardize everyone in this room because he mattered to me more than a thousand valleys piled with dead. I craved justice for one. I need you, Kazimyrah. I believe in you. I floated between worlds, between oaths and fear, promises and justice–between love and loathing. ‘Drink this,’ Natiya ordered. Eben loosened his hold, and I took the water Natiya held out to me. I finished the glass and asked for more, turning away, leaning against the counter, molding the composure the way I did when my next meal depended on it. A hundred tricks, one piled on another, fooling myself that I could do it, digging my nails into my palms until one pain masked another that I couldn’t bear.”

Kazi is terrified she will make the same mistake she did in the past and put her team in danger because she is driven by her need to get revenge on her mother’s kidnapper. To recover, she remembers the queen’s words and how peace for the realm depends on her choices. Kazi needs to confront her pain, but she has a job to do, so she avoids the pain like she did in the past.

“I had never told anyone. Shame and fear perched in my gut, ready to spring. My jaws ached, the words wedged behind them. I turned away and walked toward the door. ‘Fine!’ he yelled. ‘Run away! Shut yourself off like you always do! Go live in whatever prison you’ve created for yourself!’ I stopped at the door, shaking with rage. The prison that I created? A furious cloud swirled in my vision. I whipped back to face him, and his eyes latched onto mine.”

Jase forces Kazi to confront her past. Kazi wants to wall it up and walk away like she always does, but he won’t let her. He wants to know her better, and he gets her to lower her defenses and tell him because he has earned her trust, despite their political opposition. Through studying one another, and from their time alone together in the wild, Kazi and Jase have learned to recognize each other's habits.

“A Patrei never apologizes for decisions he’s made. And my father never did. This was one of his deathbed instructions – right after he had said I’d be faced with countless decisions. I didn’t regret pulling Jalaine from the arena. I didn’t regret our talk in the study or reprimanding her, but my anger was still loose and hot when we were in the dining room that night. When I had seen Kazi pinned beneath Fertig and soaked in blood, something furious and ugly had ripped through me. I wanted to tear something apart. Or someone. I shamed Jalaine in front of the family. She was sixteen years old. She made a mistake. A serious one that nearly cost us our lives, but she was still my sister. She was family. And Patreis made mistakes too.”

Jase thinks of his father’s commands and realizes that he needs to apologize to his sister. His father gave him a lot of good advice, but Jase is realizing that he has his own values and that there will be mistakes he needs to own up for. He apologizes to Jalaine because he reacted in anger after seeing what happened to Kazi and took it out on her which wasn’t fair, and he grows as a character because he is able to hold himself accountable.

“Fear swelled in my throat. My knees became hot liquid. You’re not powerless anymore. He was mine. Mine for a simple trade. For a worthless captain and his cohorts. Know what is at stake. Kazimyrah, I need you. Justice for thousands, or justice for one. My feet were on two different paths, my insides splitting, tumbling in two directions.”

Kazi is offered a chance to betray the queen and give up her captives for the man who kidnapped her mother. When she thought she saw him before, she put her whole team in danger and landed herself in prison. In this moment, she is faced with him again and reminded of her duty to the queen. This is the climactic moment in which Kazi must choose between her duty or her vengeance, the two paths that have torn her in half.

“‘That’s over,’ I answered. ‘Some betrayals run too deep.’ His lie about Zane left me raw, and I saw the bitterness in his eyes too, when he caught me at the enclave. Our mutual betrayals had shattered anything we once had.”

Kazi’s team still thinks she’s too close to Jase, but after Kazi found out he lied about Zane she decides the hurt runs too deep for their relationship to continue. Their mutual betrayals broke their tentative trust and she thinks they don’t have a future.