One to Go by Raymond E. Feist: An Old Thief's Last Job in Sanctuary
Book: Thieves’ World: Turning Points Editor: Lynn Abbey Story: “One to Go” by Raymond E. Feist
The Big Name Closer
Raymond E. Feist was part of the original Thieves’ World lineup. He’s the guy who created Jimmy the Hand, one of the most beloved characters in the entire series. So having him write the final story in this revival anthology feels right. It’s like a veteran returning for the encore.
And what does he give us? Not an epic battle. Not a world-shaking prophecy. He gives us an old married couple arguing about fleas, a heist gone sideways, and a dog.
It’s perfect.
Jake the Rat and Selda
The story opens with Jake the Rat catching a flea. That’s it. An old thief, sitting in his chair, in a run-down hovel at the dark end of an alley next to a slaughterhouse, carefully catching a single flea on his ankle.
He rolls it between his fingers to break its legs, then crushes it with his thumbnail. It’s a whole ritual. His wife Selda watches and gives him grief about it.
These two are wonderful. They’ve been together for thirty years. They had a son named Jaxon who ran off at twelve to become a sailor, and neither of them has mentioned his name since. They both know that opening that topic would end them. So they fight about everything else instead.
Selda’s rant about Sanctuary is one of the funniest passages in the entire anthology. She lists every terrible thing about the city. Drunk Ilsigi soldiers. Rankan mercenaries. Chief Arizak’s bodyguards. The Cult of Dyareela. Sorcerers who turn people into toads for fun. People who are already dead but walk around with pieces falling off. Thieves so thick in the Maze that you pick a man’s pocket and discover he’s the one who picked yours five minutes earlier.
Jake has heard this rant almost every day for years. He mentions it barely varies, except for the part about Arizak’s bodyguards which got added about a year and a half ago. He has to resist joining in.
Feist nails the rhythm of a long-term relationship here. These two love each other. They also annoy each other constantly. When Selda gets scared about Jake’s final job, she cries. Then she immediately starts yelling at him again. That’s real.
The Plan
Jake has a simple plan. Three jobs and they’re out of Sanctuary for good. He’s already done two. He stole the Jade Cat from a royal caravan. He lifted six purses in one night during the tournament. Now he needs one more score. One big enough to set them up with a house on a river south of Ranke, with maybe a servant or two.
The target is Lord Shacobo, a wealthy magnate. Nobody has ever successfully robbed his place. One thief named Hetwick the Nimble got in, but he was caught and hanged. Before he died, though, Hetwick told his wife something. And Hetwick’s wife told Jake. For a price.
The secret? Beware of the dog.
Jake thinks he’s prepared. He’s got a bag of meat from the slaughterhouse next door. No problem, right?
The Heist
The break-in goes perfectly. Jake gets through the locks in ten minutes. He’s standing in Shacobo’s strong room, picking out the good stuff. He takes some gold coins, but focuses on the jewels and curios with precious stones. Small and portable. That’s the mark of experience.
Then he takes one step out of the strong room and meets the dog.
This is not a normal dog. It’s the size of a small pony. It has a square muzzle and an “incredible array of teeth.” It’s been trained to keep intruders in the strong room until guards arrive.
Jake throws his meat. The dog eats everything in two bites. Jake gets about a thirty-second head start. That’s it.
What follows is one of the most entertaining action scenes in the book. Jake ends up hanging from a laundry pole on the second floor, knees tucked up to his chin, while the dog leaps up trying to bite his toes. He can feel the creature’s hot breath.
He starts working his way across a laundry cord toward the back wall. Hand over hand. The dog stops barking and just stares at him. Jake, because he’s Jake, starts talking to it.
“Nice puppy! Sweet puppy! Puppy want to play?”
For a second, the dog’s tail twitches like it might wag. Then the hackles go up.
“Oh, you don’t mean that, puppy-wuppy.” Jake sounds, as the story puts it, “like a demented granny.”
Then the cord breaks. Jake falls butt-first onto the dog’s head. The hound’s jaw cracks against the stone courtyard. Jake sits on the dog’s head for a second, unsure if he should move, then scrambles toward the wall.
He almost makes it. The dog recovers, dazed but alive, and charges. Jake braces for the worst.
And the dog licks his face.
The Eclipse
Here’s a small but great detail. Jake has been timing his heist around an eclipse that Heliz the linguist told him about. (Yes, the same Heliz from “Apocalypse Noun.” These stories connect.) Jake traded a stolen Beysib document to Heliz for information about the eclipse, knowing that when the sky goes dark, every dog in Sanctuary will start howling and people will panic.
So while Jake is hanging from that laundry cord, the eclipse starts. Dogs howl across the city. The sky darkens. It gives him a few extra minutes before anyone investigates the noise from Shacobo’s compound.
It’s a small cross-story connection but a good one. It shows these stories are happening in the same city at the same time. That’s what shared-world fiction is supposed to do.
Jake even walks past Lumm’s barrel shop on his way to the heist and notices the “still smoking fifty feet of destruction” from Jennicandra’s attack. He casually notes that the family reunion didn’t go well and keeps moving.
The Road Out
The final scene is Jake and Selda walking out of Sanctuary with a caravan the morning after the heist. Selda is complaining about having to walk. Jake is promising to arrange a ride at the next stop.
And behind them, on a laundry cord leash, trots the dog. The giant terrifying guard dog that decided it loved Jake after he fell on its head. Its tongue is hanging out. Its tail is wagging.
“You want to go back and tell that beast he can’t come with us?” Jake asks when Selda objects.
They spend the rest of the walk arguing about what to name it. Jake suggests “Shacobo.” Selda says someone might put it together. Jake suggests “Hetwick.” Selda never liked Hetwick or his wife.
So the dog stays “Puppy” until it dies of old age seven years later. Jake and Selda actually weep when they bury it in the garden behind their riverside house.
And the very last line? They lived happily ever after. Until another thief broke in and stole their wealth. And Jake had to steal it back. “But that’s another story.”
Why This Story Is the Perfect Closer
Feist does something really smart here. After nine stories full of gods, magic, political scheming, death cults, and world-shaking power, he gives us something small and human. Two old people who love each other, trying to get out of a bad situation.
There’s no dark magic. No supernatural threat. The biggest danger is a very large dog. And the resolution involves falling on that dog’s head and accidentally winning its loyalty.
The humor works because it’s grounded. Jake’s careful flea-catching ritual, Selda’s daily rant about Sanctuary, the running “nice puppy” gag. These are real character moments, not jokes bolted on.
But there’s genuine feeling underneath the comedy. The unspoken agreement never to mention their son. Selda crying as Jake gets ready to leave. The moment where they bury the dog years later. Feist earns the emotion without ever getting heavy about it.
And structurally, it’s perfect for closing the anthology. We end not with the fate of Sanctuary hanging in the balance, but with two people walking away from it. They got in. They survived. And now they’re leaving, with a stolen fortune in Jake’s shirt and a very happy dog behind them.
If the rest of the anthology shows you what Sanctuary is, this story shows you what it means to escape it. And that’s a great note to end on.