The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [20]
"Accepted," Chancy said, offering his knight and priest to Giogi.
"Earth wins," Shaver declared. "You let him oft too easy, Giogi."
"It's getting late," Giogi said. "I have to be going."
"So soon?"
Giogi nodded, signaling a servant for his check.
His friends counted up their scoring sticks. Lambsie paid out his eight silver pieces' worth of debt while Shaver and Chancy wrote out IOUs. Shaver would be good for his before a day had passed. As head of the second noble family in Immersea, Shaver's father was always keen to prove to any Wyvernspur that the Cormaerils had no problem meeting their obligations. It would take some time before he could wheedle Chancy's money out of him, though. Chancy's father, like Lambsie's was a very wealthy farmer, as well as a successful merchant. He lavished his money on Chancy, but Chancy had more gambling debts than Cormyr had trees, or so people said.
Bottles, the inn's owner, came up to their table and presented the tab without a word. People didn't generally argue over a check presented by Bottles. The retired soldier's massive physique discouraged the timid, and his gruff, unsophisticated manner indicated to his haughtiest customers that he was not a man one could intimidate.
Giogi glanced at the check for the total and reached for his purse. Then he began patting down his pockets frantically while Bottles cleared away their glasses.
Chancy smacked him on the back and asked, "Something wrong, Giogi?"
Giogi turned to his drinking buddies and muttered, "I seem to have mislaid my purse."
"Oh, dear. We'll have to call out the sheriff now," Shaver announced in a deadpan voice. "Bottles doesn't take anyone's chits. Cash and carry only."
Giogi swallowed hard. When Bottles had married the inn's previous owner's widow, the inn had been debt-ridden. The business thrived under Bottles's management, not just because he kept the same staff as had his predecessor, but because he had a shrewd head for business-in other words-no credit. His policy was renowned throughout Immersea, as were the two youths he kept on retainer for dealing with deadbeats and other heavy lifting.
The young Wyvernspur rummaged through his pockets again, then checked his boots for good measure. He pulled out the yellow crystal, which glittered in the chandelier light.
It would be impossibly hard to let the stone out of his hand, let alone out of his sight, but he had announced he was hosting the evening's revelries, and the humiliation of reneging on friends would be even more unbearable.
Giogi laid the crystal on the table. "Will you take this as collateral, Bottles? I haven't had it appraised, but I'm sure it's worth a great deal. It is to me, anyway. I'll ransom it back tomorrow."
"No, Bottles," Lambsie cried, "hold out for those boots. They're the most comfortable pair in the Realms."
Giogi flushed. Why doesn't anyone like these boots? he wondered. They're so sensible.
"Already got a pair of them kind," Bottles said. Shaver, Lambsie, and Chancy broke into laughter. Bottles eyed the three "gentlemen" with disdain. He pushed the yellow crystal away. "Keep your stone, milord. Your credit's good here."
"Whoa!" Shaver exclaimed. "Is that the breaking of a tradition I hear?"
"How come my credit isn't good here?" Chancy demanded.
"'E feels bad about it. You don't," Bottles replied.
Giogi smiled gratefully. "Thanks, awfully, Bottles. I'll have Thomas stop by to settle up first thing in the morning."
"See that you do," Bottles said, and walked off.
"First thing in the morning for Giogi, isn't that somewhere around noon?" Shaver joked.
"For your information," Giogi replied with a haughty tone, too inebriated to consider what he was saying, "I'll be up before the crack of dawn tomorrow, crawling through the family crypt."
"Whatever for?" Chancy asked.
"Someone's stole the spur and he's trapped down there," Giogi explained in a conspiratorial whisper. "Or not," he added, still confused by Uncle Drone's mysterious confidence to the contrary.
"Not really?" Shaver gasped.
Lambsie and Chancy looked up with horror.