The next morning, when I woke in my bed, I was in a better mood than I had been in for years. Somehow I had made it out of the greenhouse, and my guards had gotten me back to my room, with no one noticing the disarrangement of my clothing. I hoped Elise had been as fortunate.
I stood, stretched, and threw open the shutters to greet the new day.
I stood, stretched, and threw open the shutters to greet the new day.
A sheet of wet wind wrapped around me.
"It’s still raining," Charles said, as if this were something lighter than a downpour.
"We’ll thank the mountain god if the town don’t wash away," Jason said, his spin-dice in his hand. He spun the four-sided dice on its corner, then tossed the others – six-sided, eight-sided, and twelve-sided – before it could land on a side.
"Twelve, eight, six." Ison peered at the spin-dice, then picked up the four-sided to see its hidden side. "And four! That’s five straights in a row! Are these honest?"
"They’re charmed by a warlocker," Jason admitted, as he raked the common pool over to his side. "She passed ‘em under a black cat’s nose, rubbed ‘em with herbs, and buried ‘em in a bog while the moon passed over. Promised me my luck’ll roll better than the dice."
"What did it cost ye?"
"Three scales from a freshly-killed dragon."
"You killed a dragon?" Ison dropped three coins into the space between them, spun the dice, and got a two, a one, a five, and a three. He spun again and everything came up twos. "Damn."
Jason smiled, dropped three coins, and spun the dice. The twelve-sided came up a one, the eight-sided came up a two, the six-sided came up a three, and the four-sided landed on four. A reverse straight. His smile dropped as he shoved half his coins, as well as the six in the center, toward Ison. "Not yet. When I do, the charm will be perfect."
The game rattled on.
Friendship is a set of dice, a pair of knives, and no blood on the floor.
