The Game

There will be graphic content in later chapters. For now, I do offer a language warning.

The Game Continues...

“Papers. I can’t believe they’re making us carry little scrolls around that say we have the right ot be here. I’ve lived in this city my entire life...”

“It could be a lot worse, Irybis. Think about it. During the War of the Lance...” Rae watched him as he bent over the stove, stirring a foul smelling concoction with a long wooden paddle.

“I don’t need one of your history lessons right now, Rae."

"Where’s Mara?"

“Went to check on her paramour. She hasn’t heard from him in a few days. We told her it wasn’t a good idea, that he's probably already bagged and tagged. She had one of her fits and took off.”

“And neither one of you thought to go after her?”

“She’d said she’d cut my balls off if she caught me following her. I believed her, Rae. Hand me that bowl under the table.”

Rae picked up a small clay bowl filled with milky yellow liquid and gagged as the smell hit her. “What is that?”

“Just a little surprise me and Tristan are cooking up for young lordling Valik. He hid in his manor house the whole time the fighting was going on, and now word has it he’s spent every day the past week trying to wedge himself firmly up Ariakan’s ass.”

“I didn’t know you were taking an interest in politics these days, Irybis.”

“I’m not. They can all go jump in the bay for all I care. But I’m all for equal opportunity mayhem. Long live the insanity!” He dumped the entire contents of the bowl into a larger bucket.

“That still doesn’t answer my original question.”

“Pig guts, goats milk that’s been in the sun too long, a few eggs that I filched off mistress Anan this morning. Few other things to make it stick. Tristan knows one of Valik’s grooms. Roll a few balls of this up under the carriage seats, in a few weeks...” he trailed off, an evil look on his face.

“I like it. Long term planning. Fifty points apiece if he has to get a new carriage.”

“That’ll tie you and me, even after that little stunt with the chickens.”

Rae smiled and buffed her fingernails across her chest with a flourish. “Pure genius, that. Beats traditional tar and feathers any day. Don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. I’ve got something up my sleeve that’ll put me ahead of all three of you for months to come.”

“I’m all ears.”

“I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but it’s going to be good.”

He snorted and started to reply, but the door swung open. Tristan hauled a red faced Mara into the room.

“Tristan, you talked to your groom yet?” Irybis asked, taking his pot off the fire.

“Yeah. He said to drop by an hour before curfew,” the big man answered in a low voice.

Mara jerked her arm away from Tristan and stalked across the room, throwing herself into a corner. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, as if she had been crying for a long time. She wrapped her arms around her legs and pulled them tight against her chest, glaring at Tristan as if she didn’t know him.

“What happened?”

It took her a moment to answer. “Davram’s gone. Along with his wife, the kids. Vanished, and no one will tell me where he is,” Mara finally snapped, fighting back tears. “The place is crawling with Ariakan’s thugs. They just moved in and took over, and the gods know what they’ve done with Davram...”

“And she walks right up to the wizard, of all people, and demands to know what’s going on. If I hadn’t hauled her out when I did, neither one of us would have made it back.”

“You told them I was crazy!”

“You are crazy, woman. I had to tell them something...”

“And then he throws me over his shoulder like a damn sack of onions, skirts all wrapped around my head....”

“Shrieking the whole time.”

“Sounds like they got a good show,” Irybis said.

“I’ll give that 30, Tristan. Wish I’d been there to see it."

“Fuck you Rae,” Mara snapped.

“35, at least,” Tristan said.

“30, cause no one saw you do it.”

“Fine, 30. Mara, what do you think?”

“How many points for one of their heads on the end of a spear,” the dark haired girl muttered. Before anyone could answer her, she leapt to her feet and swept past them, out the door. The room shook as she slammed it behind her.

The other three exchanged a dark look. Tristan started to go after her.

“Let her go,” Rae said. “We don’t play that game.”

A few hours later, Tristan and Irybis headed for Valik’s stables. Rae slipped out into the evening air. Although the sun was beginning to set, the summer heat still lay heavy on the street. She strode towards the pub district, whistling softly to herself.

As she neared the district, she passed several patrols. The Knights of Takhisis made their presence known, although they rarely interfered in the daily affairs of the city. Rumor had it Lord Ariakan sat in his stolen manor house from dawn to dusk, drafting new edicts to replace the ponderous tomes of Palanthian Law.

Every few days, the most important of these new laws were read on street corners and in the public square by His Lordship’s heralds and then posted around the city for the benefit of those few citizens who could actually read them.

Rae stopped by one of these, running her finger across the parchment. She had taught herself to read years ago. It was a useful skill.

She knew she should admire the effort the Knights were putting into their takeover, and their attempts to keep the city running as efficiently as possible. But these neat, ordered letters and the regime they represented infuriated her in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible.

She glanced around to make certain the street was deserted before tearing the note from the wall. She started to ball it up and throw it in the street, then stopped. Instead, she quickly stuffed it into her belt pouch and headed for the Scaly Dog.