The Thief brings to a close the story of Raimund, Audun and the red fire.

In the first two volumes of this trilogy, The Emperor and The Son, a young man called Audun set out to seek redress after discovering that he was the disinherited rightful heir of none other than Alberon, the self-styled Emperor of the North. He discovered a mysterious stone which appeared to contain the spirit of Oien, an evil alchemist whose powers had been locked away centuries earlier by the white magic of Alastair Munro, Eldest of Bala. Now, in this third and concluding volume, Audun is hoping the stone, and the magical Staff of Power, will enable him to reclaim his rightful position as King of Kermin. Meanwhile the fate of Raimund, an orphan who has been driven to thieving to survive, is also bound up with the magical stone after he is commanded in a dream to find it and deliver it to a mysterious stranger, while embarking on a lonely and dangerous quest to rescue his true love from slavery.