Beginner's Luck_An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by J. A. Cipriano

  Nothing was going to keep me from that winner’s table.

  31

  The first game was almost embarrassingly easy. If I didn’t already know this was Colin’s tenth attempted tournament, I’d suspect they put all the first-timers at the same table. Honestly, I could’ve cleaned them all out in less than thirty minutes, but I slow-played most of the game because I didn’t want to humiliate them completely.

  There was only one person at this tournament I planned to humiliate. And when I finished the game, I still hadn’t seen him here. Hell, maybe he’d dropped dead from the strain of working for Oberon.

  That would kind of suck since I still really wanted to play him.

  I made my way to the seats where my friends had gathered, going through the rounds of hugs and back-clapping. After a few minutes of chit-chat, Elias and Mist headed for the platform for the start of the second round. I’d actually managed to stall the game long enough so that my table was the last one finished, which was a fairly good strategy for me. Make the other remaining players think I’d struggled to win, that I was an easy mark. I had plenty of double-bluffs, sandbagging, and other fun tricks up my sleeve for later.

  “So, has anybody seen Joad yet?” I said over the general din as the crowds shifted and shuffled, some headed out with defeated players, others angling for better seats. “He must have already registered at least.”

  Arden shook her head as she looked around at the others, who shrugged or gave similar negative gestures. “It’s weird, isn’t it? Usually, he’s making himself the center of attention.”

  “Yeah. Weird,” I agreed as I scanned the huge, crowded room again. It was unlikely I’d be able to pick Joad out of this crowd, especially since there were so many guys in suits, but I tried. Still no sign of him. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving. Think I’ll drop into the Canteen for a bite.” The Canteen was the name of the Chute’s in-house restaurant. Not very creative, but neither was the Chute. But that was goblin humor for you … and Fezak’s naming conventions were slightly more thought-out than typical goblin standards. Any other one would’ve probably called this place Casino, and the restaurant would be named Restaurant. “Anybody want to join me?”

  “I will,” Zorah said, already standing beside me. “If nothing else, I could use a drink.”

  Arden smiled and patted my arm. “Save a few extra seats, okay?” she said. “I’m going to watch Elias and Mist and then we’ll join you.”

  “Sounds good. See you soon,” I said as I offered an arm to Zorah. She slipped a hand through, and we started through the throngs toward the Grand Ballroom exit.

  Just as we stepped through the wide open doorway into the main casino, someone collided with me, hard enough to almost knock me to the floor.

  “Hey, what the hell —” I started to say as I righted myself but cut myself short when I recognized the asshole who’d shoved me. “Joad,” I said tightly, arranging my face into something like a grin. “Believe it or not, I’m actually glad to see you.”

  “Oh, really,” he sneered as his gaze darted warily around. He was probably on the lookout for Cayn, another surprising and notable absence from the tournament so far. “Can’t say the same about you. I was hoping you’d dropped dead and saved me the trouble.”

  “Why, Joad. Is that a death threat?” I said with all the false concern I could muster. “You do know there’s an Enforcer here, don’t you?”

  “And you know they can’t do anything without proof,” he hissed.

  Joad was still scanning everywhere, his eyes showing too much white. In fact, he really looked like shit overall. His immaculate suit was loose and rumpled, his hair wasn’t perfectly combed, and there were dark patches under his eyes. He even looked like he’d lost a few pounds, placing him firmly in the gaunt and sickly category. And his breath was awful, rancid like he’d been eating rotten meat or something.

  I leaned close to him, trying to hold my own breath so I wouldn’t get a whiff of his. “I guess working for Oberon is a real shit-show, huh?” I said.

  “How …?” he sputtered and then narrowed his eyes at me. “Out of my way, you slimy little worm,” he snarled, shoving me aside as he stalked past us into the Grand Ballroom.

  I shrugged and turned to Zorah. “I think he might be scared.”

  “Yes, that’s quite possible,” she said with an uneasy smile. “And I’d like to be far away from him right now if you don’t mind.”

  “Great idea,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  The Canteen was just as packed as the casino itself, but I figured that would be the case. I requested the soonest available table for six, in case a few stragglers came along with the others, and the server told me it’d be about an hour, maybe a little less. So Zorah and I found seats in the cramped waiting area, where we talked for a bit about anything and everything except Oberon and the uncertain future. Princess woke up from her fourth daily nap while we waited, and she joined the conversation, with me conveying what she said to Zorah.

  By the time we were brought to a table and had drinks in front of us, Arden, Mist, and Elias had arrived to join us.

  “How’d it go?” I said as they took seats around the table. Turned out we didn’t need the extra seat, but that worked for me. The people here were basically my inner circle, and I was glad for the time to hang out before the next game started.

  Elias responded first, laughing under his breath. “Well, I’m still in, but I suspect that won’t be for long,” he said. “As for our dear blue-haired friend …”

  “I lost,” Mist grumbled, but then a smile flashed across her face. “That’s fine, though. I was playing with my winnings anyway, so I’m still not down.”

  I gave her a knowing smirk. It was the curse of the gambler, constantly balancing a lifetime of wins and losses to decide whether you were up or down at any given time. Even if you happened to be flat broke, everything was fine as long as you’d won more than you’d lost.

  “Well, at least we’ve got quite a while for this meal before we’ll have to go back in there,” Elias said as he opened the menu in front of him. “There’s still two more rounds in the game, and then a two-hour break before the next one starts. I’ll have plenty of time to digest everything.” He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. “Of course, we won’t have the next placements until all the rounds are through. And no offense, Seth, my boy, but I hope you’re not at my table.”

  I laughed as I glanced at my own open menu. “None taken. I’d promise to go easy on you if you are, but you know I’d be lying.”

  That got a round of laughter from the table. “You know, I only lost because of the Enforcer,” Mist announced to no one in particular. “Not that he did anything. It’s just that those … uh, guys, creep me out.” She looked around with a slight frown. “Does anybody even know what they are?”

  Murmurs and shrugs responded, but I happened to notice that Elias’s features tightened a bit, even as he shook his head. I’d seen him react that way before whenever I brought up Titus, and now I really wondered about it. Did he know more about the Enforcers than he was letting on?

  I wanted to ask him, but this wasn’t the time or place. So I pretended I hadn’t seen his expression.

  “They are kinda freaky, aren’t they?” Arden said as she gave Mist a sympathetic look. “I wouldn’t want one of them breathing down my neck while I was trying to concentrate on a game. And hey, speaking of Enforcers,” she added as she sipped from the complimentary ice water the server had placed on the table. “Did anyone else notice that they had another one come in and take over for the one who’d been standing there? It was weird because I didn’t think Enforcers got tired.”

  A cold chill raced down my spine. “You mean Titus isn’t playing guard dog in there anymore?” I said hoarsely. “When did that happen?”

  “Just before we left the ballroom to come here,” Arden said with a tiny frown. “Why, what’s wrong?”

  Her question was answe
red when a red glow washed over the table, and everyone froze in place as a sickly familiar voice thundered just behind me.

  “Seth Wyatt,” Titus boomed. “A magical cheating device has been detected on your person. You are hereby charged with attempted fraud at a licensed casino game, and you will be taken to King Towers to await sentencing.”

  The whole table immediately erupted in shouts of protest, but I barely heard them as Titus’s leathery hand clamped around my upper arm, and we both vanished.

  32

  I was pretty sure I’d never been this furious in my life.

  No one went into the basement at King Towers unless they’d been taken there by an Enforcer, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Mostly I figured it’d be like any other prison, with cells and bars and people yelling for their phone calls or their lawyers. Not that we had lawyers in the UV.

  But it was nothing like that. Titus teleported me directly into a small, stone-walled room with no doors, no windows, the only opening a small vent in the ceiling fifteen feet above, and then he vanished from the room without a word. I had plenty of them for him, but he didn’t listen to a single one.

  I’d spent the first few minutes proclaiming my innocence at the top of my lungs, hoping the bastards were listening through the vent or something, and the next few trying to get the hell out of the box. There was obviously a Null field, but I still tried to activate the watch, call up my dice, summon Princess, and finally started going through my pockets looking for anything that would go off.

  That was when I found it. A rolled flash paper imprinted with a re-inking spell tucked shallowly in the front right pocket of my coat. Where Joad had bumped into me.

  “Hey, assholes!” I shouted as I held the little roll of paper up, waving it over my head. I’d never use a re-inking spell. All it did was change a single playing card to a different card so you could cheat one hand, and I had way too much respect for my game to use cheap tricks like this. “You see this? It’s not mine, goddamn it! I just found it in my pocket, and I’ve never seen the thing in my life. Are any of you dicks paying attention?”

  Just as I finished my rant, a red glow filled the room, and I couldn’t move. There was a puff of smoke in front of me, and an Enforcer appeared. This one wasn’t Titus.

  “Look, whoever you are, I’ve been set up,” I said as the Enforcer’s shining amber eyes stared at me, unwavering. “This isn’t mine, you hear me? Joad Baylor slipped it in my pocket at the Chute, because he’s trying to keep me from finishing the tournament.”

  The Enforcer reached up and plucked the spell paper from my frozen fingers. “You have been found with a magical cheating device in your possession,” he said, passing a leathery, clawed hand over the scroll. When he did, the little paper lit up like Christmas for a few seconds, and then burned itself into ash. “This device was treated with an anti-Null barrier,” the Enforcer said. “Attempting to bypass a sanctioned Null field is a serious crime, punishable by Smiting.”

  I tried to swallow, but my throat wouldn’t cooperate. “It’s. Not. Mine,” I said as forcefully as I could. “Are you deaf? If you want to Smite somebody, go get Joad Baylor. That spell was his, and he stuck it in my pocket. He’s already tried to kill me once, but it didn’t take, so now he’s trying to frame me instead.”

  The Enforcer cocked his head like he was analyzing something. After a long pause, he said, “The Enforcer who brought you in has the final say over your guilt or innocence.”

  “Titus?” I said, trying to keep the groan from my voice. “Look, that guy really has it in for me. Can’t somebody else handle this one?”

  “Titus will hear your case, and he will make a fair decision,” the Enforcer said.

  “No, he won’t! Listen, just take me back—”

  The Enforcer vanished abruptly, along with the red light, and I lost my balance and hit the stone floor with a pained grunt.

  I made a conscious decision to stay calm, and not to exhaust myself screaming at nothing. It wasn’t easy. For a while, I paced the confines of the room, trying not to compare the stone box to the coffin. I measured the space by walking beside the walls, one foot in front of the other, and estimated it was eight by eight feet. When I got tired of moving around, I sat against the back wall and stared up at the vent.

  Time passed, and no one showed up. I had no idea how long I’d been there. It might’ve been ten very long minutes since not-Titus came in here, or maybe it’d been three hours, and I’d already missed my start for the second game of the tournament. Fury camped in my gut and stayed there, a slow boil seeping through my veins as I started envisioning what I’d do to Joad when I got out of traction. Because I had no doubt that whenever Titus bothered to arrive, he’d Smite me in a heartbeat.

  When the smoke filled the center of the room, at first, I thought I was hallucinating. And when Titus solidified in front of me, it took a hell of a lot more willpower than I’d known I possessed not to launch myself at him and drive a fist into his bony, horrifying face.

  Somehow I managed to remain calm as I pushed up to my feet. “What, no suspension field?” I said to the Enforcer, who hadn’t moved since he materialized. “Aren’t you worried I’ll attack you or something?”

  “As much as I would enjoy seeing you try, Mr. Wyatt, we both know you’re far too smart for that,” Titus said.

  My jaw would’ve been hanging open if I wasn’t too surprised to let it. “Was that a compliment?”

  “No, it was not. Simply an observation.” Titus moved toward me slowly. “My colleague has informed me that you are claiming you were … framed, by a Mr. Joad Baylor.”

  “Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “Come on, Titus. A re-inking spell? Why would I bother with something as simple and obvious as that?” I had no idea why I was attempting to explain anything to him, or why he hadn’t just Smited me already. But I kept going anyway. “I’m pretty sure I already told you Joad’s throwing everything he can at me, trying to either kill me or get me out of the Four Skulls. Hell, this latest little scheme of his probably worked. I don’t know what time it is, but I was supposed to be at the tournament table at quarter to five, so … just go ahead and Smite me. It doesn’t matter now.”

  Titus made a long, drawn-out rattling sound that was probably supposed to be a sigh, even though it sounded like a snake preparing to strike. “As it happens, Mr. Wyatt, I believe you,” he said.

  This time my jaw did drop. “You what?” I shook my head. “Say that again.”

  “You heard me,” Titus snapped. “While Mr. Ryerson was in custody, he gave testimony that suggested Mr. Baylor … has it in for you, I believe were his words. Additionally, you have demonstrated a basic sense of decency. Though it wasn’t necessary, you did attempt to save my life.”

  “Yeah, you’re welcome,” I said. “Who the hell is Mr. Ryerson?”

  Titus blinked his amber eyes. “Percival Ryerson,” he said. “I believe you know him as Alistair.”

  Holy shit. Alistair’s real name was Percival? I almost laughed, until I realized that I had nothing to be happy about. Even though Titus had decided I was innocent, Joad still got what he wanted, the bastard. I’d have been disqualified from the tournament by now.

  Titus took a step closer. “You will accompany me back to the Chute, so I can resume my post.”

  “You know what, I’d rather not,” I said as my fury rekindled. “Can you just drop me off at my place or something?”

  “I supposed I could,” Titus said, shrugging beneath his cloak. “But you will miss the start of the next game. The current time is twenty minutes to five.”

  “Shit, are you serious?” I nearly shouted. My legs actually wobbled in relief, and for a few seconds, I thought I’d collapse again. “Okay, you got it. I’m accompanying you.”

  With a curt nod, Titus grabbed my arm.

  In a blink, I was standing with the Enforcer in the middle of the platform in the Grand Ballroom. The abrupt shift from near-silence to roaring chaos made me w
ince, and I squinted my eyes against the bright wash of lights. When my senses adjusted, I shook my head to clear it and turned to Titus. “I guess I owe you one,” I said. “Thank you.”

  I thought he might’ve smirked, but it was hard to tell through the shadows thrown by his hood. “Just stay out of trouble, Mr. Wyatt. Please.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m trying to do,” I said with a grin, waving as I headed for the only empty seat at the poker tables, which had to be mine. On the way, I caught sight of Arden, Zorah, and Mist in the crowds with the rest of our group, all of them waving and cheering loudly. I waved back and then slowed as I walked past a full table where I recognized two of the players. Elias … and Joad.

  Elias broke into a broad, incredulous smile. As I nodded in return, Joad caught sight of me, and his reaction wasn’t quite as friendly. The color drained from his face, leaving an unhealthy shade of gray behind, and his eyes burned like coals as he clenched his jaw.

  “What’s wrong, Baylor? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” I said evenly.

  He sputtered something incoherent and turned away fast.

  I shrugged and took my seat, giving my thumbprint to the dealer at the table with just a few minutes to spare. This time I wouldn’t bother slow-playing if the game went easy. I wanted the final round, the big showdown. And as much as I loved Elias, I hoped he wouldn’t beat Joad.

  Now more than ever, that was my job.

  33

  The second game of the Four Skulls tournament actually presented me with a few challenges, and I enjoyed it. Two of the players at my table, Bucky Sharpe and Sheryl Lavergne, were very good, and it took me a while to pick up on their tells. Even without any soft-playing, my table was still the last one finished. The game had come down to Bucky and me, and I was forced into playing it conservative for a while since he’d thrown some reverse tells into the mix.