This Novella takes place as the same time as The Magician
Description[]
Jimmy the Hand, boy thief of Krondor, lived in the shadows of the city. Though gifted beyond his peers, Jimmy is merely a pickpocket with potential - until he aids Prince Arutha in the rescue of Princess Anita from Duke Guy du Bas-Tyra and runs afoul of "Black Guy's" secret police. Facing a choice between disappearing on his own or in a weighted barrel at the bottom of Krondor's harbor, Jimmy chooses the former.
Forced to flee the only home he's ever known, Jimmy finds himself among the unsuspecting rural villagers of Land's End, where he hopes to prosper with his talents for con and thievery. But Land's End is home to many who tread the crooked path - and to a dark, dangerous presence even the local smugglers don't recognize. And suddenly Jimmy's youthful bravado and courage are leading him into the maw of chaos...and, quite possibly, to his doom.
Plot summary[]
Jimmy the Hand and the Mockers have just helped Prince Arutha and Princess Anita escape the clutches of Guy du Bas-Tyra in Krondor.
Martial law is declared in Krondor and many of the prostitutes, pickpickets, street urchins, and other thugs associated with the Mockers are rounded up and prepared for execution.
Jimmy, however, devises a plan to rescue the imprisoned Mockers, including his whorish girlfriend Flora, but inadvertently destroys a dungeon while doing so.
Hoping to gain the praise of the Mockers for rescuing many Mockers that were slated for execution, Jimmy instead finds himself banished for disobeying the Upright Man's orders to do nothing and lie low.
Jimmy makes his way with Flora to Land's End to reunite her relatives there. As Jimmy explores Land's End, he meets the distraught farmgirl Lorrie, whose parents have been butchered and whose little brother was kidnapped. Jimmy and Flora agree to help Lorrie rescue her younger brother.
An agent of the temple of Lims-Kragma, goddess of death, also joins Jimmy for his search for the kidnappers and the kidnapped.
The awful truth was that the baron of Land's End was sacrificing children in an attempt to revive his dying wife who has been suspended between life and death by necromancy for over a decade. The baroness had much difficulty with childbirth but had a bastard son that was given up for adoption. Her son became the farmboy Bram, a neighbor of Lorrie, who also searched for the kidnappers.
In the end, Jimmy and the agent of Lims-Kragma rescued Lorrie's little brother along with some other children and put an end to the baron of Land's End and his necromancy. The baron and the baroness finally died and Jimmy decided to return to Krondor to rejoin the Mockers.[1]