Skif thought he was stealing a horse. Instead, he got a destiny.
Orphaned, starving, and scraping by on the streets, Skif learned early that survival meant stealing. By age twelve, he was a skilled cat burglar—quick, clever, and invisible. But when he tries to snatch a gleaming white horse left suspiciously unattended, he finds himself Claimed by a Companion.
Now Skif is whisked into the world of Heralds, bonded to a magical steed, and given the chance to turn his cunning into something greater. But old habits die hard, and danger lurks where no one’s watching.
In Take a Thief, Mercedes Lackey returns to Valdemar to tell Skif’s origin story—one of grit, mischief, and the unexpected path from street rat to legend.