Ernesto Barbarossa

In the morning, Prosper, Riccio, and I went to Ernesto Barbarossa's shop to sell the loot. Barbarossa was a very fat man. He was completely bald except for the full fox fur colored beard that he had. The shop was full of lame curios that were way over priced.

"What are you looking at, hedgehog boy?" Barbarossa snapped, "Go into the office. And don't touch anything, do you hear?"

Of course we can hear you, with you yelling your head off, I thought as I followed Riccio and Prosper into Barbarossa's office. I let Prosper and Riccio sit in the two chairs that were in front of the mahogany desk and I stood behind them.

"Okay, let the dog see the bone," Barbarossa sighed. Prosper dumped the loot onto the table. Barbarossa picked each object up, looked at it, the put it back down. He did that over and over until I started drawing simple Assassin's symbols on the wooden floor.

"Stop that!" He barked.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I said so!"

"That's not a very good reason," I said, still drawing the symbols on the floor.

He winced and looked at the boys, "You have some pretty decent items today," he said looking at some sugar tongs with a glint of greed in his pudgy, piggy eyes, "So, I'll give you…10,000." Riccio gasped. I rolled my eyes, though no one could see it, and Prosper kept a straight face. "Which is very generous," Barbarossa continued, "But let's just say, I'm in a generous mood today," he looked at me again, "Wait a second," his eyes widened, "you're the Assassin wanted for 500,000 florins!"

I calmly walked up to Barbarossa. Then my right hand shot to his neck. I held my hidden blade to his throat, "Say a word, and you're dead," I said in a quiet, dangerous tone. He gulped and nodded.

"Now, Prop?" I stepped back to let Prosper begin his magic.

He kept his stony face and began, "50,000 or no deal."

Barbarossa leaned forward, "Have you gone mad, boy? Here I am, giving you a generous offer, too generous, and you give me fanciful numbers."

Prosper just got up and started packing the loot back into the bag. When he reached for the sugar tongs, though, Barbarossa snatched them off the table.

"You're smart, boy. Too smart for my liking, so I'll give you…" he paused for a dramatic effect, which I rolled my eyes at, "40,000. Now leave! I don't want you little thieves to know where my safe is." We walked out of the office back into the shop.

When we got out, Riccio gripped Prosper's arms, "Prop, Scipio won't let anyone sell his loot ever again! No one can ever get even a single florin off of Barbarossa, much less 30,000 more!"

I laughed, "Yeah, great job, Prop. Though those things were worth much more."

Prosper nodded. He looked at a statuette, "Riccio, Lora? Do you remember how much we sold that statue for?"

I shook my head, "I wasn't even in Venezia yet."

"You know I can't remember numbers," Riccio reminded him.

"Well, now it has two more zeros on the end of it."

I looked at the price tag, "That's outrageous!"

At that moment, Barbarossa walked in with a bag of coin, "Here you go. No need to count it, it's all there. I just deducted the amount of the glass beetle your little brother broke last time."

"He did not!" Prosper argued.

"Oh yes he did," he handed Prosper the pouch, "And try not to get robbed on the way back."

I shrugged, "I'll just kill those who try to rob us, then loot them and get even more money."

We were about to leave the shop when Barbarossa grabbed mine and Riccio's shoulder, "One more thing." I pushed his hand off of my shoulder. "A client of mine is looking for someone to –let's say—procure something for him. Mention it to the Thief Lord. Let him know that there is a great deal of money in for it."

"Yeah, sure," Riccio said simply, but Prosper and I exchanged nervous looks. Neither of us trusted the redbeard. We were determined not to let Scipio know about this job.