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Sophie squeezed her lips tighter, but the laughter burst out anyway. “He would say that! ‘I shall bring you his head. You may use his skull as a vase. No use in wasting a perfectly good cranium.’”
Charlotte giggled. “We’re so morbid.”
They giggled again. Sophie tried to hold it in and snorted. “Oh no, I’m so unladylike.”
That only made them laugh harder.
Finally, they stopped.
“You can ask me anything,” Charlotte said. “I don’t mind.”
“What happens next?” Sophie asked.
“Tomorrow, Richard is going to the club for his weekly card game. It’s possible that Brennan will be there.” Charlotte’s heart skipped a beat. There was no danger, she reassured herself. Richard had fooled everyone, except for the old house servant, whom he had replaced. The real Casside and his servant were now safely tucked away in one of Declan’s dungeons. The chance that Brennan would realize that Richard was an impostor was very slight.
Very, very slight.
“So what then?” Sophie asked.
“Then we will make Brennan think he’s being betrayed.”
* * *
RICHARD sat at a pentagonal table and reviewed his cards. He had the winning hand. He surveyed the faces of the four other men at the table. Much like the Broken’s poker, the Weird’s council was a game of strategy and bluffing. He’d learned to count cards when he was barely old enough to understand the game. It required a good memory and paying attention. Child’s play.
To his right, Lord Korban frowned slightly, trying to hide his tells. Next to him, Robert Brennan smiled at Richard from above his cards. The man was unconcerned and completely at ease, as if relaxing at home. He didn’t look like the man whose island slave operation had turned to ash a week and a half ago.
Lorameh, a veteran of the air force, sat next to Brennan. As a human being, Lorameh was thoroughly unremarkable: pale blond hair gathered into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, light eyes, neither handsome nor unattractive. He’d known Brennan for a long time, and the two of them treated each other with easy familiarity.
At Lorameh’s side, Maedoc, his severe gaze fixed on the cards, completed the circle. Where Brennan was carefree, Maedoc reviewed his cards with a deadly serious air, as if the fate of the realm rode on his winning hand.
If Richard called a challenge, Lorameh would fold, Korban would panic and go in, then change his mind and fold at the first opportunity. Maedoc would stubbornly hold, because although his hand was mediocre, he viewed surrender as the weakest of the options. Brennan . . . His hand was weak, but Brennan was an enigma.
“Challenge,” Richard said.
“Accepted.” Korban slid a coin toward the stack of gold in the center of the table.
“Withdraw.” Lorameh tossed his cards down. “Too rich for my taste.”
“Accepted,” Brennan said, adding his own doubloon. The corner of his mouth curved.
“Accepted,” Maedoc growled.
“Living dangerously, Robert,” Lorameh said.
“Danger adds spice to a mundane existence,” Brennan said.
“You just took a voyage to the Southeast Coast, while I slave away at my desk,” Lorameh said. “Of the two of us, my existence is much more mundane.”
“I was visiting a friend,” Brennan said.
“A friend with soft curves and beautiful blue eyes perhaps?” Lorameh asked.
“A lord never tells. Your play, Casside.”
“Challenge,” Richard said again, and slid a gold coin into the center of the table. There had been a very slight note of command in Brennan’s voice. Brennan had also counted the cards. He knew exactly what sort of hand Richard had. Where was he going with this plan?
“Withdraw!” Korban dropped his cards.
“Accepted.” Brennan added more money.
Maedoc hesitated.
“Our brave soldier is thinking of surrendering,” Brennan said.
A light laughter rolled around the table. Richard allowed himself a sparse smile to not stand out.
Maedoc’s face turned redder. He slid another coin to the stack. “Accepted.”
What was going on? Richard sorted through the available responses. Casside would keep playing. He was driven by money, and the hoard of gold on the table was substantial. “Challenge.”
“Another challenge, Casside?” Brennan looked directly at him. “You should make it a big one.”
His tone was mild, but his stare left no doubt—it was an order.
“Very well.” Richard slid the entirety of his coins into the center of the table.
Lorameh whistled quietly. Korban turned a shade paler.
“Accepted,” Brennan said. He pushed a tower of coins to the center with a careless sweep of his hand and turned to Maedoc.
Punishment, Richard realized. Maedoc was being punished for the failure of the slavers on the island. He oversaw the slaver muscle. The breach in security was Maedoc’s fault, and now Brennan was publicly humiliating him.
The big man looked back at Brennan, his teeth clenched.
“Are you with us or against us, Maedoc?” Brennan asked.
The muscles on Maedoc’s jaws bulged. He stared at the coins. Of the Five, he was the least wealthy. Both Brennan and Casside had means, but for the other three bluebloods, the lack of funds was a real danger.
The strain on Maedoc’s face was clearly visible. Richard felt no sympathy for him. The memory of rain-drenched holes filled with children, of the boy with his lips sewn shut, and barely human slaves was too fresh.
“Well?” Brennan tapped the table.
“With you.” Maedoc shoved the gold forward.
“Your move,” Brennan looked at Richard.
“Triple Royal Charge.” Richard dropped a king, three knights, and an archer on the table.
Maedoc’s face turned purple. “Double charge,” he croaked, and let the cards fall. Two knights, a squire, a page, and a blacksmith.
“Two pages, two squires, and a carpenter.” Brennan spread the cards on the table. “You win, Casside.”
“That’s the lousiest hand,” Korban said.
“Luck of the draw.” Brennan grinned.
He rose and slid the money toward Richard. “Take it before we change our minds.”
Maedoc looked ripe for apoplexy. Richard hid a smile. It said volumes about his own morality, but anything that hurt the Five brought him joy.
Lorameh had an odd look on his face—he wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he didn’t like it.
“I think I shall take my winnings home.” Richard swept the coins into a bag.
“I’ll join you.” Brennan rose.
They walked out of the club into the night. It had rained. Dampness hung in the air, and rainwater pooled in the uneven cobbles under their feet. The club occupied one of the restored buildings of Carver Castle, and the narrow street curved, snaking its way through the tangle of buildings that had once housed servants, knights, and soldiers. Here and there, magic lanterns cascaded from the walls, their pale lights diluting the darkness rather than banishing it.
“You played rather aggressively tonight,” Brennan said.
What would Casside say? “I dislike losing money.”
Brennan grimaced. “We have all just lost a great deal of money.”
“How fast can the enterprise be rebuilt?” Richard asked.
“The efforts are under way now. Six months.” Brennan’s face jerked. An ugly scowl distorted his features, as if the fury inside him struggled to tear through the paper-thin mask of his easygoing demeanor. The man had a temper. Richard filed it away for future reference. “It was the Hunter. Three hundred men and a yearlong hunt, yet they can’t kill one man.”
The irony was too rich. It was time to carefully push Brennan in the right direction. “One wonders why.”
Brennan pivoted on one foot toward him. “What are you implying?”
“I find it odd that these three hundred men can find a set of twins of particular age and coloring but can’t find the Hunter.”
The passageway widened, circling the main keep. A few moments and they would pass through the arched gate and reach the main courtyard and their phaetons.
Something moved in the darkness by the arch.
Brennan halted. Richard put his hand on his rapier. Casside was a skilled fencer—like many bluebloods, he had a proper martial education. The slender sword wasn’t Richard’s preferred weapon, and being divorced from his magic hindered him. Casside couldn’t stretch his flash onto his sword. It was a lost art, known by a select few. And now that he was Casside, Richard would have to make do without it.
People moved within the arch, ink black silhouettes in darkness.
Brennan raised his head. “What have we here?”
Arrows whistled through the air. Brennan’s magic sparked, bursting from him in a brilliant white flash shield, disintegrating the missiles.
A bright blue flash shot from behind them, threatening to cut Brennan in half. Richard shoved him out of the way. The flash scorched the cobbles between them.
Richard dashed into the darkness in the direction of the flash, his rapier bare, counting under his breath. One, two, three, four. Another bolt of blue lightning tore at him. The flasher needed four seconds to recharge. The most accomplished magic users could do it instantly, but most needed time to refocus their magic.
Richard dodged, and the magic scoured the cobbles. The flasher gave himself away. He saw them now, three people waiting in the alcove to the left—the magic user and two fighters.
Richard charged. One.
The fighter on the left, a lean, agile woman, struck at him, spinning, her twin wide swords slicing like a razor-sharp tornado. He dodged left, right, left again. Two. The bigger sword grazed his chest, cutting through the doublet. Steel burned his skin.
Three.
The woman pressed her advantage.
Four. He dodged right, avoiding the flash by a mere second, lunged, and smiled as the tip of his rapier burst his opponent’s heart. The woman fell.
