Legends of the Riftwar: Jimmy the Hand. Raymond E. Feist. 2003.

Book 3 in the Legends of the Riftwar series. 

Jimmy the Hand, boy thief of Krondor, lived in the shadows of the fpcity. The sewers adds his byways and a flea-ridden, rat infested cellar his home. Although gifted beyond his peers, he was still but a nimble street urchin, a pickpocket with potential. Until the day he met Prince Arutha. 

Aiding the Prince in his rescue of Princess Anita from imprisonment by Duke Guy du Bas-Tyra, Jimmy runs afoul of Black Guy’s secret police. But his situation gets worse when he blatantly disregards the Upright Man’s instruction to lie-low in order to rescue his fellow Mockers from the cruel reprisal of the Duke’s henchmen. 

Given the choice of disappearing on his own, or with the Upright Man’s help - in a weighted barrel at the bottom of Krondor’s harbour - Jimmy flees the only home he’s ever known, and ventures south to the relatively safe haven of Land’s End. Suspecting the rural villagers have never encountered a land with his talent and nose for finding wealth - other people’s wealth, he’s fairly optimistic about his broadening horizons but Jimmy is completely unprepared for what greets him.

For Land’s End is home to to others who treat the crooked path, and more, to a much darker secret; a dangerous presence unknown to even the local thieves and smugglers. Jimmy’s youthful provado and courage will plunge him deep into the maw of chaos and death.