Role Model Part Two: Lone Becomes Shadowspawn's Apprentice and Pulls Off the Heist
Book: Thieves’ World: Turning Points edited by Lynn Abbey (Tor Books, 2002)
Story: “Role Model: A Tale of Apprentices” by Andrew Offutt
In part one, we met all the players. Shadowspawn is old and broken. Lone is young and cocky. A useless apprentice mage keeps blowing up random things across Sanctuary. And a cat exploded in the marketplace.
Now Lone has to earn his place.
Breaking In to Prove a Point
While Strick was quietly asking around about Lone, Lone was doing his own investigating. He figured out that Chance is really Shadowspawn. And he made a point of proving it.
Strick and Chance return home to find that someone broke into Strick’s mansion overnight. Nothing damaged. No doors or windows forced. Only one thing taken: a raw amethyst from Strick’s desk. But the intruder left a clay tablet, sealed with Strick’s own wax. Inside: “Why not just ask me stead of them uthers?”
“I like him more and more,” Shadowspawn says. “It’s what I would have done!”
The next day, Chance finds the same amethyst on his own bedspread with another note: “While yur frend was trying to learn about me, I was learning about you, Shadospawn.”
The kid can’t spell. But he broke into the Spellmaster’s home and the apartment of the greatest thief in Sanctuary’s history. On the same night.
The Angry Alley Test
Chance goes to The Bottomless Well and waits over an hour. Lone doesn’t show. So Chance leaves a message with the bartender: “I waited a long time; too long for a boy so young and inexperienced.”
Lone arrives late, hears those words, and loses it. He slams the counter. He swears. But before he storms out, the bartender adds one more thing. Chance warned him not to enter Angry Alley.
So naturally, Lone heads straight for Angry Alley.
In total darkness, a voice speaks. Shadow-quiet.
“The carelessness of rash-brash youth is not bravery, Lone. The real Shadowspawn would not be so rash as to charge in when such a clear warning was issued.”
Lone can’t see anyone. But for the first time, he controls himself. He thinks before he speaks.
“You left word that I must stay out of this alley only because you knew I would have to accept the challenge!”
“You have just restrained yourself,” the darkness says. “You must learn to do that much more often. Else you will die a very young man, and who could possibly give a damn.”
Lone swallows his pride. “I will try, Master of Thieves.”
“Just ‘master’ will do, if you intend to apprentice yourself to Shadowspawn and succeed him.”
This is the best scene in the story. The old thief testing whether the young one can be taught. And Lone, for the first time, choosing discipline over bravado.
Brain Beats Legs
Chance tells Lone to race him to Strick’s house. Lone runs. He pushes his legs to their limit. When he arrives, Chance is already sitting on the front steps.
“You cheated!” Lone says.
“True! I used my brain instead of my legs!”
Chance had a horse and cart waiting. Lesson learned: being fast isn’t enough. You need to think.
The Arizak Heist
The first real job. Lord Arizak owed Strick money for healing work but refused to pay. Chance wants Lone to steal back the exact amount. Not a quarter-ounce more. Not less.
They recruit an old soldier named Kantos to shoot an arrow with a rope over Arizak’s wall. Chance gives advice. Bring the rope back. Always bring back the arrow. And don’t leave a sign you were there.
“Once I left proof to the man who ruled this city,” Chance admits. “Then I felt obliged to steal back in and remove it… and then I had to get myself back out again.”
The heist goes smoothly. Almost. On his way out, Lone runs into a servant. He hits the man hard. The servant goes down and stays there. Lone gets out clean.
He returns with the exact amount. Not a coin extra.
“What did you take for yourself?”
“Nothing!”
“Well done.”
The Sacred Sandal and the Gargoyle Fight
The real mission comes next. The Dyareelans stole the Sacred Left Sandal of Father Ils from the main temple. The original was destroyed, but a copy has been made and hidden in the keep of Kusharlonikas, the ancient mage. It’s disguised with a SeeNot spell to look like a flagon.
So the apprentice thief needs to break into the home of a master mage. Where there might be demons guarding the place.
Strick casts protective spells on Lone and gives him a ceramic ward-medallion. But he can’t guarantee any of it will work.
Lone goes in at night. He drugs the guard dog. He scales the fence, goes up a wall, leaps to the main roof, and enters through a window. Inside the mage’s chamber, he finds the table with the flagon and two ornate gargoyle lamps.
He opens Strick’s vial of dark powder and tosses it in the air. The powder reveals what’s really there. The flagon becomes a sandal of rust-colored leather. And the gargoyles open their eyes and snarl.
Both launch at him from opposite directions. Lone ducks and scrambles. He cuts one completely in two. But then the door opens behind him. It’s Komodoflorensal, the apprentice mage.
The sliced gargoyle fuses back together when the ward-medallion gets torn off and shatters. Now Lone has three enemies. He throws a knife at the mage, but it swerves away. The mage has his own protection.
Then Komodoflorensal does the one useful thing he’s done the entire story. He shouts “Iffets!” and turns everything back. The sandal becomes a flagon. The gargoyles become lamps. Two apprentices stare at each other across the table.
One says “Shit!” and the other says “You’d better start running, Komo-duh-whatever!”
How It Ends
The Sacred Left Sandal makes it to the temple of Ils. The high priest heaps praise on them and agrees to keep their identity secret.
As they walk away from the temple, somewhere in Sanctuary, Komodoflorensal botches another spell. A shadow passes over the sun at noon.
Lone grins. “How convenient! Darkness at noon!” And he heads for the nearest wealthy building to do what he does best.
My Take
This is the most purely entertaining story in the anthology. The relationship between old Shadowspawn and young Lone feels genuine. The master who can’t do it anymore passing the torch to a kid who has all the skill but none of the wisdom.
The parallel with Komodoflorensal is smart. Both are apprentices. Both worship their masters. But Kusharlonikas is cruel and dismissive, while Shadowspawn is tough but fair. The contrast shows how mentorship shapes people.
The Angry Alley scene is the heart of the whole thing. Lone choosing to listen instead of fight. That’s the real turning point.
And the exploding cat from part one is still the funniest moment in the entire book. I stand by that.