The new player, Tome, calmly raised again, a massive wager. While he is free to play as he likes, that sort of play is called bullying, because it is. The bully will bet so much the opponent must fold and give up a good hand or face serious financial risk. The regular player, a man who sat to my right hesitated, believing he held a stronger hand but at what cost if he should lose?
My purse was on my lap hidden to the other players as I counted out my money to place on the table. Without thinking about it, I reached under the table in a way the others wouldn’t see and opened my fist to display a small handful of coins to the regular. “Take them.”
He nodded, and surreptitiously scraped the coins from my palm to his fist and not only met the bet but raised the wager again, a totally unexpected action. The table went silent in shock. In the center of the table sat a small fortune. Nobody had believed he would match the bet on the table, let alone increase it—and two of the coins he bet were gold. I checked my purse, suspecting more might be required for him to remain in the game, but I’d determined not to allow the bully to roll over a fellow player. It was supposed to be a low stakes friendly game.
Tome’s face twisted into a snarl. “You didn’t have that much money. Where did you get it?”
“I have far more than that, my friend, and may have more than one purse. Are you going to match my wager or fold?” The man at my side snarled as if anxious to continue the betting.
“I must go back to my cabin to get more money.” The bully stood and pushed his chair back.
“Hold on,” I heard myself saying without thinking. “This has always been a friendly table-stakes game since I’ve been here. Am I right?” I spread my hands and looked at the other players for support. “Table-stakes?”
They all nodded their agreement to me, but their eyes remained on Tome. His face reddened. “Where’d he get that extra money?”
“Does it matter?” I asked easily. “He has it here at the table, and that is all that counts. His wager is in the pot.”
The man on the other side of me, one who had been quiet until now, said, “Match the bet or the winnings are his. Table-stakes rules, as always.”
Tome abruptly spun in my direction. “You two are in this together.”
I also stood and kept my voice soft and even. “I am not even in the game, yet. None of the money on the table is mine, so I have no interest except to play a few friendly hands. He matched and raised your bet. Those are the rules of the game. We play with what we bring to the table.”
He gaped. He wanted to leap over the table at me. But with me standing up to confront him on equal terms, the bully in him hesitated. Standing up as I had, dared him to take action. It also said his bluster didn’t scare me.
The player at my side who had confronted the bully with his wager was much smaller than either of us. He also stood. “His problem is with me, Damon.”
I couldn’t allow Tome to attack the smaller man. I said to him in a challenging tone, “You can always take it up with me in Dagger.”
“You’re never going to get to Dagger,” he said, then his face tinged red, and he backed from the table. Obviously, he’d spoken in anger and out of turn. Said something he wasn’t supposed to. Before anyone could react to his statement, he fled the salon.
Those of us remaining at the table exchanged puzzled looks. “What was that all about?” I asked. “What did he mean?”
One of the other regulars asked me, “Have you had problems with him before?”
“Never seen or met him,” I said.
“Well, it sure seems like he has it in for you. As soon as you entered, he was watching every move you made,” the same man continued. “He even scooted his chair closer to you, so he could listen to your conversation before you joined us.”
The one next to me said, as he pulled the pile of coins closer and shoved far more than I’d loaned him my way, “Hey, thanks for helping me out with that hand. He’s been raising everything since he sat down. I was about to quit the game because of it. High betting took all the fun out of the game. But, he was only interested in you.”
We played on, but my heart and mind were not in it. The money I’d loaned was repaid, the play was friendly and passed the time, but I heard nothing of value in the table-talk. The ship still sailed east, away from land and Trager. The storm remained to our right side, off in the distance. Flashes of lightning on the horizon were like fireflies on a dark night. I didn’t have to ask Kendra where the mages were because I knew where they were. They were on the other side of the storm keeping pace with us and creating our problems.
I finally said, “Gentlemen, my travel-partner may need me, so I’ll go check on him. I hate to leave you good men to play by yourselves, but I have to go.”
“Is that the cripple you brought aboard?” the man directly across from me asked, his tone holding no hint of insult or rudeness, just a straightforward question.
“Yes,” I said. “But don’t let that appearance fool you. Flier is a good man and next time you see him, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” Before leaving the salon, my eyes scanned the area outside, including what was visible outside the door through the small window. Once on the deck, every shadow, hiding place, above and below, was checked before proceeding. When I moved, it was sudden and quick. My ears listened. I sniffed the salt air searching for the scent of an attacker.
Reaching the door to our cabin seemed a major accomplishment. Inside, Flier slept on. Half his sleeping powder was there beside the water pitcher. After missing so much sleep last night, I didn’t need it. I climbed into my bed and fell under the spell of sleep so deep I might never wake.
Kendra looked in on us a couple of times. My knife was in my hand each time, but she spoke softly as if sensing my unease and assured me it was her. I woke again when the ship turned in the middle of the night. The motion of the ship had again changed. I lay awake waiting for the crashing of the storm to begin, the rolling and pitching of the ship as it entered the wall of rain, but it didn’t happen. What wind and waves there were, now struck the port side of the ship instead of the starboard. We’d turned completely around and were sailing back towards Trager and not into the storm.
That was fine with me. I went back to sleep and stayed that way until morning when I heard Flier trying to be quiet as he moved in the cabin. I opened one eye, then the other, as I watched him test his knee. He started out easy and increased the weight on it, only wincing occasionally. However, to offset that, he smiled to himself. Even when thinking he was alone, he smiled, and that told me more than any inquiry.
That told me all I needed. “Hungry?”
“Starving.”
I swung my legs over the side and waited. Since the course change, the ship tilted to the opposite way it had, and it took some getting used to when walking. We stopped at Kendra’s cabin, and they joined us. In the small dining room, all five of us crowded around a single table only large enough to hold our five mugs. We balanced bowls of gruel sweetened with peach slices in our laps and made jokes about it while devouring the blandness with unconcealed eagerness.
The girls were learning more Common words and used them to spice up the conversation. It amazed me how few were required for communication. Sure, there were times when we didn’t understand, but the girls were old enough to act out those comments as if we played a game. For instance, mimicking sleeping, or using a hammer. Once we identified the correct word for them, they seemed to absorb it as part of their language.