Chapter 102 – Old Friends

  The city was electric on the night of the fight. I hadn’t realized how big of a deal it had grown into until I saw the crowds, electrified as though by drakkyn living lightning. Revelers packed the crowded streets, and barkers shouted odds from every corner. Lucitan fights were rare, since neither side could impact the outcome with a God preventing cheating. But for followers of bloodsport, they were the real deal for that very same reason. Honest odds were like shrum to a gambler.

  I wore my stolen battle robe and the scarf of inflated value and walked beside Annalisa in her delving getup (thoroughly washed and scrubbed). Crowds spotting us parted as grass before the plow—or so I assumed, having never seen a farm. Barrowdown was Ours, and everyone recognized it as such. Even the pickpockets stayed away, which was wise because the blood-stained deck in my pocket itched to lash out at anyone and everyone.

  As a conduit to power, I felt it more clearly than ever. Thanks to Daggertongue’s lessons (torture sessions), I could feel the eddies of individual wills conflicting in the deck as various cards pushed and pulled against each other. The constant shifts that had once felt like so much noise in my brain now seemed a navigable tempest. The storms approved of that sentiment. Unlike my graceful deck carved with mooncap ink that flowed easily with my will, this deck was primal, powerful, tainted, and needed a constant firm hand—but promised great and terrible violence when wielded with the intent to cause harm. Part of that was the bloodstains of the fel witch that linked it and I together. Part of it was the furtive paranoia of the witch who had carved the portraits with a scratching, uncertain hand.

  Annalisa soaked in the crowd's adoration, even as I tried to ignore it. She beamed under the attention, with freshly polished horns glimmering in the light of lamps, torches, and the wane dragons. She raised her hands and swirled a flurry of snow from two portals, creating a brief summertime blizzard that delighted the crowd in a short reprieve from the stifling summer heat. Even her steel knuckles had been polished—though she’d removed the spikes, as we were fighting people, not monsters. Still, I watched as she jabbed the air, snapping punches faster than I could follow and slipping imaginary opponents. She needed no sharp edges to be a force of nature. Annalisa of Dunnemarsh was pure blunt instrument.

  “Are you ready, Darcent?” She asked. I don’t think she was talking about the fight.

  Along the roads from the Mop to the Middle City, I spotted our people, both obvious and hidden. This was a big night with lots of moving pieces, and we were fully expecting the Mayazians to make a play. I made eye contact with a pair of discrete adventurers that we’d retained and offered the barest nod.

  “Ready for anything,” I said. Short of Mother Mayaz herself making an appearance at the Shrine of Lucita (unlikely, as she was a clear adherent of an abyssal god), the Mayazians would have to really up their game to catch us off guard. Unfortunately, it seemed even Lucita was paying attention to tonight, because every reading surrounding the fight suffered abrupt, divine blockage. Apparently, the Lady of Odds deemed even that to be a breach of her ritual’s integrity.

  The Lucitan shrine had lit up for the fight, with streamers and colored glass lamps giving the temple’s face a soft, red glow. The crowds waiting to get in were far more than the temple could actually handle—considering the fighting pit within was of a very modest size. Maybe a 10th of the crowd space as the middle-city arena where we’d watched Storm-laden fight. But, if anything, we were drawing an even more massive crowd. Impromptu fight pits had been organized outside in the open spaces, replete with drink vendors and bookies issuing wager slips.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I spotted several of our hopefuls scrapping in the temporary pits, facing off against fighters from other factions in the downs and those of slightly more renown from the middle city. The pair of twins I’d met in Jeedle’s training yard squared off with a pair of dwarven brawlers in one ring and seemed to be making a good showing for themselves. I stopped to watch their technique. They’d been practicing. What little fat they’d had at the training yard had been trimmed, and there was an economy to their movement that hadn’t been there when I’d fought them. As I caught their eye, one of the twins deftly deflected a blow, while the other stepped into the opening and landed a devastating counterpunch that put one of the dwarves face-down in the ash. The other watchers at the pit roared, and I offered a subtle nod to the pair.

  But we weren’t here for the small fights. We were headlining this shindig, and people started to notice us. Not intent on being mobbed by the middle-city gawkers who hadn’t learned the wisdom of keeping their distance, I headed into the shrine with Annalisa.

  The noise of the street fell away, echoing shouts and distant mutts barking replaced by the rifle of cards and the clink of coins, and the low murmurs of the conversations around table games. Even the most recalcitrant of men loosens their lips around the table where the mind is focused on odds and the flow of Hawks and Wheels. Annalisa started to get distracted and deviate toward her favorite table game as we passed. I had to hook a finger in her trouser belt loop and keep her on-mission.

  “Just one game?” she protested. “We have time.”

  “We have business,” I insisted. “I want an update with the high priestess before the fight. I need my partner in case something happens.”

  Annalisa thought about that for a minute, then took one last look at the table and followed me to meet the paladins guarding the second-floor staircase. They recognized us, moving aside so that we could ascend.

  You could barely tell that a deadly fight had taken place in the hall outside the office of High Priestess Problems, but Annalisa ran her finger down a scratch in the wall that had likely come from a thrown Mayazian dagger.

  I rapped my knuckles on the high priestess’ office door, and the drakyn woman opened it, eyes initially wary until she saw myself and Annalisa. Her posture relaxed—slightly—and she admitted us. Annalisa, of course, beamed and smiled her widest smile at the sight of the tea set already steaming on the table, and dashed to pour herself a cup while I greeted Problems.

  “Has everything been set for the night?” I asked.

  The high priestess nodded. “Your opponents for the evening are already in their prep room warming up—where you should be, as well.”

  I took a seat next to Annalisa. “I wanted to see if there’d been any signs of our friends from Hollowdown fishing around the venue. Where do we stand with the Mayazians?”

  High Priestess Problems fidgeted, her claws not seeming to discover a comfortable way to fold. “Several packs of them have been spotted infiltrating the crowds. They’re certain to try something.”

  “Good,” I said.

  “Good?” she asked, taking a seat across from us and arranging her skirts.

  I shrugged. “We know why they’re here. We know what they’re after. We have more hidden allies in one place than ever before. Even the Kindledown wolves are here. The Mayazians are jumping into a den of vipers.”

  The high priestess didn’t look convinced. “Mother Mayaz might not be here in person, Darcent, but she’s still pulling the strings and she’s a powerful seer.”

  Leaning forward, I took a biscuit from the tea tray, hoping that it looked like I was more confident than I felt. “So am I,” I said.

  “With decades less experience,” said Annalisa, helpfully.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. She stared blankly at me. I sighed, turning back to the Lucitan priestess. “Yes, she’s more experienced. I might have missed something she didn’t. But I don’t think so.”

  The high priestess looked at us both and her expression softened. “Ultimately, it’s not for me to fuss over. Lucita will decide. And the chips shall fall where they may.”

  I fingered the deck in my pocket. The chips may fall where the luck goddess willed. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t give them a little nudge along the way.