Chapter Twenty-two

It was raining; a miserable, cold rain that made us want to do nothing but huddle inside under a blanket. So huddle we did. Baisan and Castin were quietly talking in one corner, the girls in another. Orrun and Leker had dozed off. I was bored. I sat by the fire, cross-legged, just staring at it.

It had been a few weeks since my escape from jail. My brand still hurt sometimes when I moved my shoulder oddly, but it had healed into a shiny scar. My wrist was still useless for climbing. My back had entirely healed, but Kassia said there were a couple scars that would probably take some time to fade.

I poked at the fire absentmindedly and added another few pieces of wood. Our pile was getting low, and if it weren't for the rain, I would have volunteered to go try to find some more. It was always easy to find pieces of wood from broken furniture, or I could steal a chair, if Baisan ever let me out on the streets again.

"Finn, come here."

Baisan's voice shook me from my bored daze. I went over to join them. He and Castin had my old chest open in front of them. There were some copper siyas, and a single brass. I eyed it, wondering briefly how we managed to burn through Tannix's money so quickly. "What do you want?"

"If I give you ten siyas, would it be worth it to go to the tavern?" Baisan asked. There was just a slight sense of hopefulness in his voice that he was clearly trying to hide from me. He didn't like that I was the only one who could turn a profit at the tavern.

"You're letting me out?"

Baisan nodded. "You're healed enough for this, aren't you?"

"Suppose so. How much do you want?"

"As close to a hundred siyas as you can manage."

"A hundred?" I asked, louder than I intended. The girls glanced across the room at us. "Are you joking, Baisan? None of the poorer men will play with me once I've won around fifty siyas, and the bigger games refuse to let me in regardless of how much money I have. I've tried."

"So supplement your winnings a bit," Baisan said with a shrug. "You've done it before."

"And I almost got stabbed in the back."

"Take Castin."

"So he can get stabbed in the back? All right."

Castin swore under his breath. "Do you think I like being your bodyguard?"

"When my money buys us dinner? I think that makes guarding me worth it."

Baisan closed the chest and locked it. The sound snapped me out of my argument with Castin. "Right. I promise you fifty siyas. I'll see what I can do beyond that."

Baisan smiled as he handed me the brass siya. "Take my cloak for the rain. You were bored anyway."

"That's the only reason I'm agreeing to go. Come on, Castin."

The tavern was near the main gate. It was busy, probably in part because of the heavy rain. Castin and I slipped through a side door and pushed back our wet hoods. Like everything in the lower city, it was an old building, but large. It usually catered to the sailors and merchants who came to the city, and Natives rarely used it. There were smaller taverns and bars scattered around for our use.

Castin and I weren't there for the ale, though. We shouldered our way between the crowded tables. As promised, I grabbed a few things along the way from men too drunk to notice me, and Castin did the same. Near the back of the wide room, we found the tables we were looking for.

They looked just like any other tables, except that as well as tankards of ale, the men sitting at them held cards. Every table had a small pile of money in the middle of it, and some of the men had neat stacks of coins in front of them. The higher stakes games were the furthest back, and I forced myself to ignore them. As I'd told Baisan, they wouldn't let me in even if I could afford it. Instead, I walked up to the closest table. Castin hung back, leaning against one of the wooden pillars holding up the roof.

I tossed my brass siya onto the table. "I want in."

The man with the most coins, which he'd neatly piled into a little tower, glanced up at me hungrily. I crossed my arms but submitted to the gaze. He would think I was a desperate boy from the streets who didn't know what I was getting into. He probably hoped I had a bit more money on me that he could take. He smiled widely. "Of course, lad. Join in."

I sat down in one of the empty chairs and took my five cards from the pile in the middle. For a while, not much happened besides us passing around cards when it was our turn. The winning man was still winning; he kept collecting money from the centre to add to his pile. I had a strategy, though. While he gathered his money bit by bit, I was going for a complete win. A few of the other men tossed down their cards with groans, giving up, until it was just me, the winning man, and two others.

Finally, I was given the correct card to complete my set. I dropped my cards to the table casually, letting it seem like I'd given up for a moment before I said, "Stampede."

The men all stared at me, then my cards, then me again. The winning man threw down his cards and pushed his money into the centre in disgust.

The man beside him chuckled. "Didn't expect that from you, boy."

I leaned across the table to gather all of my coins and shrugged. "A fluke, probably. Care to play again?"

The four men exchanged glances. "I'm in," the winning man finally said. He put another ten siyas into the middle, and I added ten from my new pile of money. Grudgingly, the other men did the same.

The second game went more quickly. Just as I'd expected, the men refused to play a third game against me. As Castin came to help me collect the winnings of the two games, the man who had been playing so well got to his feet.

"You cheated." He glared at me across the table, a knife suddenly in his hand.

I slipped the money pouch under my cloak and took a step back. "No, I'm just good." I tried my best to sound apologetic.

He didn't believe me.

He moved so quickly that I didn't have a chance to back out of the way. I suddenly found myself held against the pillar, with the man's hand tight around my neck. In vain I grabbed his wrist as if I could pull his hand away.

One of the other men yanked him back. His hand slipped from my neck but clenched the front of my tunic, tearing it as he pulled me forward. The other man was speaking, but my attacker's gaze had snapped to my exposed shoulder.

His eyes narrowed in realization and he pushed away the other man. "You're that thief. There's a price on your he—"

There was the sound of glass shattering and he fell to his knees. I scrambled backwards and pulled Baisan's cloak back over my shoulder. The man swore and stood, rounding on Castin, who held the remains of a broken bottle in one hand and his little knife in the other. There was a reason other thieves avoided fighting Castin. The man was nearly twice his size, but he hesitated at the sight of the weapons.

I took my chance and kicked the back of the man's knee, causing him to stumble forward. Castin leapt out of the way. We glanced at each other quickly before both running in opposite directions. The man was just getting back to his feet when I slipped through the front door.

I ran down the street and ducked into a side alley. The noises from the tavern got louder for a moment as someone opened the door, but the rain made it impossible to hear footsteps so I wasn't sure if the man was following me.

I nearly yelped when a hand grabbed my shoulder, but it was just Castin, tugging me further down the alley. I followed, and we ran, zig-zagging through the streets until we knew we were far enough away to be safe. Only then did we slow and start to head back home. I pulled up my hood in a useless attempt to keep my already soaking hair dry.

"Thank you."

I knew he'd heard me, but he didn't speak until we'd turned onto another street. "You're going to have to be more careful now that you've got that brand."

I scratched my shoulder absentmindedly. "I know."

"So... how much did you get?"

I allowed myself a small smile. "A hundred and ten siyas, as well as whatever we grabbed when we were in there."

"I thought you said a hundred siyas was impossible to get."

"I took the risk, went for a slighter higher game. Usually I play in the ones where people only bet a few siyas each, not ten." I glanced sideways at him quickly. "I wouldn't have done it without you there to back me up. The poorest men don't tend to threaten me when I win. The more money at stake, the more likely someone is to try to hurt me."

"Thank Zianesa I didn't have to actually fight him. That man was huge."

"Just having the knife was enough to surprise him," I pointed out. "So like I said, thank you."

Castin smiled. "Anytime, brother. Now... do you cheat?"

"No! How could you suggest that? I'm just good at the game."

"If you say so." He laughed. "Baisan'll be happy either way."

"At least there's that."

The weather cleared up later in the day. Baisan and Castin went out to buy some food with my money, leaving me in charge of watching over the others. I ended up sitting in front of the fire once again, fiddling with my Order ring distractedly. I was so deep in thought, wondering when Tannix would visit again, that at first I didn't notice Kassia sit beside me.

"How's your wrist doing?"

It took me a moment to register that she'd spoken. "Oh, fine. As long as I don't try anything with it."

"Let me look." She gently picked up my wrist and pulled it over to rest on her knee. She unlaced the leather bracer, unwound the binding, then starting prodding me. I tried to pull away but she held my arm firmly. "Stop it. I'm just trying to feel if anything has healed."

"How could you tell?"

"By the way it feels," she replied unhelpfully. "So you're good at gambling? Why?"

I knew she was trying to distract me from the poking, and I tried to let it work. "Because I..." I flinched and hesitated. "Because there are three ways to get money when you live on the streets: thievery, prostitution, and gambling. I couldn't survive just off stealing things, and the second option was entirely out of the question, so I taught myself how to play Stampede. And Sailor's Dice. And Commandeer. And all the typical games the sailors play when they come into the city."

Kassia glanced up from my wrist. "You're very smart, aren't you?"

"I don't know about that."

"I do, but I think you try to hide it."

I stared at the fire again, a little uncomfortable with the way she was looking at me. "I'm not trying to hide anything."

"Not hide, then, but downplay."

"I... I don't..."

"Don't worry, Finn. I won't let anybody in on your secret." I looked up to see that she was smiling at me, as if the other girls, Leker, and Orrun hadn't heard our whole conversation. She started to wrap my wrist back up carefully. "I think it's healing well. You probably don't need the splint anymore."

"Oh. Good."

She'd just finished when Baisan and Castin returned. Baisan was carrying a loaf of bread, and Castin had a large, unplucked pigeon.

I rotated my wrist experimentally and stood up. "Did you really waste money on that bird?"

"Castin caught it," Baisan said. He handed me the bread, while Castin went off to hand the bird and his knife to Stria.

I was actually impressed, but disguised it in a taunt. "He can't pluck it himself?"

"Do you want to pluck it, Finn?" Castin asked.

"No, does Stria?"

"I don't mind," Stria said. "Last time any of you tried to cook something you ruined it anyway." She settled down beside the fire and got to work.

I sat down opposite her and started to slice up the loaf into eight pieces. All in all, once Stria had cooked the pigeon, it was a fairly good meal. We drank rainwater, which had collected in buckets left outside for that purpose, and we each got a thick slice of bread and a few pieces of pigeon. As far as wild meat went, pigeon wasn't bad. We'd tried rat once a few years ago when we were desperate, and decided to avoid it from then on if we could. Fresh birds really were the best, if we could manage to catch them.

We spent a few hours lounging around the fire, making up stories to pass the time.The girls braided each other's hair in the classical Native style while we lay around on the floor, gnawing on bones to get the last pieces of meat off before tossing them into the fire. It was nice to relax for once.