The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [19]
They'd welcomed him back heartily enough, but they had cut short the tale of his travels with their pointed lack of interest, insisted his yellow crystal must be ordinary quartz, and teased him about his boots. In addition, he no longer understood half the things to which they alluded in their conversations and jokes. So, though he was not really keen on it, he'd accepted their offer to play a game of Elemental Empires. The game, at least, was familiar.
Giogi began drinking too much and losing lots of money, habits that also were familiar. With a roll of a pair of ivory dice on a felt-covered gaming table, Chancy Lluth had just vanquished all Shaver Cormaeril's troops. In response, Shaver sacrificed all his leaders to protect a hidden card.
"Primary of flames-that's a guarded assassin," Giogi announced when Shaver revealed the card to Chancy. Giogi grinned. One could always count on Shaver to do something vindictive just before he lost.
With a scowl, Chancy tossed one of his knights into the discard pile. Shaver surrendered his unused cards to Chancy and signaled a servant to bring him a fresh drink.
Shaver drew a priest from Chancy's unused cards to replace his murdered knight.
"How many cards do you want, Giogi?" Lambsie Danae asked. Lambsie had folded much earlier, as usual, unwilling to risk as much money as the others. Lambsie's father, while one of the wealthiest farmers in Immersea, kept Lambsie on a strict gambling allowance, and Lambsie never exceeded his limit.
Giogi stared at the crystal chandelier hanging over the game table and tried to calculate the odds of his drawing a card he could use. His element was earth, and there weren't too many stone cards left in the deck. Nor were there too many major cards he could use without the minor stone suit cards to act as armies to protect them. Each unused card he held doubled the price of a new card, but he could not afford to discard those he held-they were mostly wave cards, which Chancy, whose element was water, would snatch up and use against him.
"First card will cost you sixty-four, and if you can't play it, the second one will cost a hundred twenty-eight," Lambsie said.
"I can multiply by two, thank you, Lambsie," Giogi said with an insulted sniff, though after the last brandy he'd downed, he probably couldn't.
Giogi counted out sixty-four points' worth of his yellow scoring sticks. Lambsie dealt him a card, a jester-nearly useless, but playable. Giogi turned it over and sifted it into his single army line.
"You've got a two-strength army stacked with a sorceress, a bard, and a jester, Giogi," Chancy said. "Are they leading your troops or entertaining them?"
Ignoring Chancy's taunt, Giogi paid another sixty-four points. "Another card, please," he asked Lambsie.
Lambsie dealt him a four of winds, unplayable, but safe to discard, except, once he discarded, Giogi could buy no more cards. He slid the card into his unused pile. "One more," he said sliding one hundred twenty-eight points' worth of sticks across the table to Lambsie.
Lambsie dealt him a third card.
Giogi drew a priest out from his unused stack and played it with the new card.
"The moon!" Shaver exclaimed. "How lucky can you get?"
"You know what they say," Lambsie said, "Tymora looks out for fools."
"The tide goes out, wave troops retreat," Giogi said.
Visibly annoyed, Chancy picked all his minor Talis cards off the table and slipped them into his unused stack of cards.
"I think my leaders will challenge yours to personal combat," Giogi said. "My sorceress against your priest and my rogue against your warrior."
"That doesn't leave anyone to command your troops," Chancy pointed out.
"Jesters can command troops when the moon is in play," Giogi said.
"That's right," Lambsie agreed.
Confronted with the possibility of losing big, Chancy asked. "What kind of surrender terms are you offering?" he asked.
"Half your debt," Giogi offered magnanimously.