Kip clenched his jaw. Swallowed. “Because it hurts.”
“Because it hurts?” Andross mocked. “You’re ashamed. I can hear it.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“You should be. Keep your hand on the table. Scream when it hurts too much.”
What?
Andross pushed down on Kip’s hand, flattening it slowly. Kip felt the new-formed skin at his joints tear open. A squeak escaped his lips, but he didn’t scream.
I’m a big tub of lard, a shame, an embarrassment, but I am the fucking turtle-bear. You can go to hell, Andross Guile. You old, heartless, cruel—
The ligaments in Kip’s hand were on fire, his whole palm was touching the tabletop, but his fingers were stubborn claws, arched up.
And then suddenly, the pressure stopped.
Tears were leaking down Kip’s cheeks. He gasped and cradled his hand to his chest.
Andross Guile said, “That which you would have serve you, you must bend to your will. Even your own body. Perhaps especially your own body, fat one. Did the skin tear?”
It was a moment before Kip could trust his voice. “Yes, my lord.”
“Smear the unguent back into the cuts. You don’t want it getting infected.”
With a trembling hand, Kip did.
“You know what I’m going to tell you next, right?” Andross Guile said.
“Keep doing it, all day, every day, so that it heals right,” Kip said.
Then he felt another wave of shame. He did know what to do. He simply hadn’t had the will to do it. Andross Guile didn’t even have to say anything.
“You did well,” the old man said instead.
“Huh?”
“You didn’t scream. I expected you to. So this time, no stakes. A practice game. Next time is for your little friend, though, so I hope you’re getting better.”
With no further talking, Andross Guile dealt himself his cards. Six facedown, two up: a Stalker and a Green Warden.
That meant he was using his green and shadow deck. One of his best. Kip wrapped his bandages loosely around his hand and drew his own cards from the pure white deck Andross had given him to play. Kip had played with it twice before, and he was finally getting comfortable with its strategy. His up cards were the Eye of Heaven—a power enhancer—and the Dome of Aracles.
Kip cursed inwardly. No stakes? He’d just drawn this deck’s best possible opening hand. His hand cards were good, too. He actually had a reasonable shot at winning. There were no choices for his first two rounds, and unless he drew something game-changing in the interim, all he had to do was survive until the sixth round, so Kip said, “When you say we play for my little friend, what do you mean?”
Andross played Cloak of Darkness, making Kip’s gambit much less likely, and said, “That slave girl.” He seemed to be at a loss to remember her name. Kip didn’t supply it, for fear that he was being baited. Andross snapped his fingers.
“Adrasteia,” Grinwoody said quietly from the darkness. Kip looked at him. The man was wearing odd, heavy spectacles Kip hadn’t seen before.
“Adrasteia,” Andross said as if he had remembered it, as if Grinwoody were an extension of himself. “I’ll buy her, and if you win, I’ll give her to you. You can take her as your room slave. I don’t imagine your village gave a boy of your dubious charms many opportunities for the pleasures of the flesh, did it?”
Kip’s stomach turned. “And if I lose?” he asked, hoping to steer far away from those topics.
“She’ll be my slave. Worry about that as you will.” His mouth twitched in a shadow of a smile.
Kip, I’m a slave, Teia had said. You don’t even know what that means.
He did now. Kip was a fat bastard from the armpit of the Seven Satrapies, but he had choices. Teia didn’t. Other people might look down on Kip, but they didn’t even see Teia. Or when they did, it might not be in the way she’d want to be seen.
“What’s your plan for me?” Kip asked.
Kip couldn’t see the old man’s eyes through his dark, dark spectacles, but Andross’s head cocked to the side, brow twitched, surprised. “A question my own son would never have dared to ask. Are you bold or stupid, boy?”
“Both. And you’re avoiding the question.”
Andross Guile’s lips pursed. He lifted two fingers, waved them forward.
A fist crashed across Kip’s cheek. Grinwoody. May Orholam scratch out his eyes with sand.
Kip had fallen out of his chair and dropped his cards. He picked them up slowly, regaining his composure.
“It’s amusing once in a while, Kip, but I don’t tolerate much disrespect. Remember, or be reminded.”
“So are you going to tell me or not?” Kip asked. He was treading the line, and he knew it, but Andross Guile let this one pass.
“It depends on how good of a Nine Kings player you are.”
Kip was too smart for once to follow that up with, But what’s the endgame, Rossie? Sure, the Guiles nearly rule the world, but Prisms don’t last forever. Your family’s almost gone. What do you want?
Maybe Andross Guile had been scheming so long that he didn’t know how to not scheme. Maybe there was no winning, and he knew it, but losing was definitely possible, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to lose. So he’d fight and fight and tear down a hundred other families and keep clawing until they finally nailed shut his crypt under the Chromeria.
“I don’t have that much left that you can take away from me,” Kip said. “So how many more times can we play?” After a while, with nothing to lose, I’ll only be able to win.
But it was impossible to imagine Andross Guile putting him in a position where only good things could happen.
“Three more times,” Andross said.
He had thought of it, the old shark.
Kip said nothing, and lo and behold, silence actually paid off. “Once we play for who owns Adrasteia. And then we play again, for your future.”
“I don’t think I like you very much,” Kip said.
“That’s a cryin’ shame, because I mean for you to hate me as much as you hate your mother.”
“Don’t,” Kip said, suddenly cold.
“Excuse me?” Andross Guile said.
“Don’t,” Kip said.
Again, the head tilt, weighing Kip. “Your move,” the old man said.
Kip made a mistake on the seventh round, not correctly calculating the cascading effect of the cards’ abilities on each other, and watched Andross put together a brilliant series. Kip lost on the next turn.
With a sigh, Kip collected his cards. It was, as Andross Guile had said, a practice round, without even timers. But Kip could have won. With luck, he could win against Andross Guile. It was possible, even with Andross Guile’s decks. Just unlikely. Kip flipped through the deck, seeing what cards would have come next, what might have happened if he hadn’t botched it.
“How long do I have?” Kip asked.
“A drafter of your abilities? Maybe fifteen years,” Andross Guile said. But he was grinning. He knew that wasn’t what Kip meant.
So Kip didn’t take the bait. For once.
“One week, then we play the first game. I’ll arrange it with her present owner. And you can fantasize about what you’ll do with her if you win. Of course, you have to win first.” Andross Guile chuckled. “You think you’ll free her, don’t you? Truth is, you’re not as altruistic as you think. No one who shares a drop of the Guile blood is. Blood is destiny, bastard. Don’t forget it.”