Dance of Thieves

Throughout the novel, Pearson explores how political unrest among the kingdoms affects both communities and individuals. Political unrest disrupts life and safety in Hell’s Mouth in the wake of Karsen’s death, and Jase feels both the personal desire to protect his family's legacy and a moral obligation to his people. Similarly, the Rahtan’s mission to capture Illarion is motivated both by Queen Lia's personal vendetta and her desire to prevent future war. These two political aims work in tandem to divide Jase and Kazi’s loyalty and provide the framework of the plot.

The power vacuum created by the death of Jase’s father is immediately evident when Jase is captured by labor hunters in Hell’s Mouth. The Ballengers protect Hell’s Mouth and have never had problems with labor hunters because of their ruthless reputation. When Jase and Kazi make it back to civilization, Jase finds out the labor hunters are being paid to create unrest in Hell’s Mouth and tries to figure out who is doing it. The Vendan settlement is another piece of political unrest in the region. The Queen of Venda worked out the settlement with the King of Eislandia after the war, but they were placed near a Ballenger memorial, deepening the insult of their being positioned on unrecognized Ballenger land. After the settlement is raided, the Ballengers are an easy assumption as the culprits, but they didn’t do it. The attack was calculated to bring the kingdoms down on the Ballengers, so the political unrest of the region goes a lot deeper than Jase realized, and his family is being targeted specifically. Illarion attempts to exploit this political instability by developing an arsenal of weapons with other fugitives to put the kingdoms under his thumb. Jase doesn’t know this and helps him thinking only of protecting Hell’s Mouth; his good intentions and personal desire for a fever cure inadvertently contribute to the very political upheaval he's trying to stop. When Illarion's plot is revealed, Jase realizes how foolish his family has been and vows to do better.

In the end, the political instability of the realm is thought to be put to rest by the capture of the Illarion and his cohorts. The Queen of Venda agrees to support the Ballengers joining the Alliance of Kingdoms and being recognized as the First Kingdom on the continent because she recognizes that subjugating and ignoring the Ballengers enabled political instability to flourish in and around their territory. All the political unrest in the novel guides the character's motivation and plot, sets up the sequel, and contrasts the ideas of freedom and justice with the ideas of war, greed, and profit. Through Jase's benevolent leadership at the Vendan settlement and Queen Lia's graciousness at the end of the novel, Pearson suggests that political unrest is the result of unmet needs and exploitation. The solution proposed at the end of the novel is to prioritize the safety of communities over personal gain, and to seek compromise instead of domination.