“Please yourself.” The Pharaoh looked back at Leticia and me. “At the start of the hand, Wotan tried to use the amulet or whatever it is to influence the shuffle. But precisely because the sword is more powerful, it was able to exert a countervailing influence.”
I grinned. “You controlled the sword?”
“Since the session began.”
“That’s impossible!” Wotan snarled.
The Pharaoh shrugged. “You might want to take a look at it and then see what you think.”
Wotan rushed back to his chair, jerked the sword out of its scabbard, and let out a wordless bellow.
The blade had hieroglyphics engraved on it, like I’d seen in the temple. I had a hunch there’d been a different kind of writing there before, but the symbols had changed.
Wotan trembled. “This was a treasure.”
“Well, it’s nothing but bad luck now,” the Pharaoh answered, smoke coiling from his mouth. “For you, anyway. I recommend you dispose of it as soon as possible, using an appropriate ritual.”
“I’ll kill you for this.”
“Anything’s possible, I suppose. But it won’t be tonight. You’re out, and the rest of us have a game to finish. If you have even the vaguest notion of proper decorum, you’ll shake our hands and join Queen and Timon at the rail.”
‘Yeah,” I said. “Take a hike.”
“Please,” Leticia said. “Unless you feel up to contending with all of us at once.”
Wotan shivered, raked us all with a final glare, spat on the floor, and stalked away to join the spectators.
Given the way I felt about him, it was a kind of a letdown that in the end, I hadn’t been the one to knock him out. But it was also a relief to see him go.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After Wotan left, I looked at the Pharaoh and asked, “How did you do that without him even knowing?”
The mummy smiled. “I told you, my friend, all my secrets are yours for the asking. But only if you meet my price.”
“Sorry.”
“I assumed as much, but it’s still a pity.”
Leticia smiled. “Not for me. The last thing I need is two big, strong men ganging up on helpless little me.”
The Pharaoh chuckled. “Even when I was alive, and people were smaller, I wasn’t considered especially large. And I daresay you were never considered ‘helpless.’”
She smiled that sultry movie-star smile. “Well, perhaps not completely helpless. Is it my deal?” She reached to gather in the cards.
As the game got rolling again, the friendly table talk died away. The Pharaoh went back to being a silent, rotten, withered thing. Leticia didn’t frown, squint, or hunch forward—except for that one moment in Rhonda’s store, when I’d forced her to set her love puppets free, I’d never seen her do anything that made her look less gorgeous in any way—but there was still something about her that let you know she was concentrating hard. I probably looked pretty serious myself.
After knocking Wotan out, the Pharaoh had more than half the chips on the table, and he tried to use them to push Leticia and me around. She played back at him aggressively. I didn’t, because I wasn’t catching any cards.
I flashed the Thunderbird to see if there was a magical reason for that. If anybody was cheating, I couldn’t spot it. I wondered if the others meant to finish out the game just playing normal poker. If so, great, just as long as I started getting some decent hands.
Finally I dealt myself the eight and nine of diamonds. I bet, and Leticia called. The Pharaoh sat and stared at us for a while. He was thinking of coming in, too. Since both Leticia and I were already in, there was a good chance he had the right odds. But in the end, he mucked.
I dealt the flop. It was the ace of hearts, the eight of clubs, and the eight of spades. That killed both my flush and straight draws, but gave me trips. Which were likely to win anyway.
Leticia bet. It looked like she had an ace to go with the one on the board. I didn’t want to scare her off, so I just called.
The turn was a brick. She checked, and I did, too.
As I started to deal the last card, she gave me a smile that made me feel warm and tingly from head to toe. “Whoever wins,” she said, “it’s been a delight. I’m grateful I had the chance to play with you.”
I swallowed. “You, too,” I said.
I burned a card and turned over the king of spades. Leticia sat and thought for a few seconds, then said, “All in.”
I figured she’d been playing ace-king, and now had top two pair. That’s a strong hand, and even with the eights on the board, you couldn’t blame her for taking a chance on it. Not this late in the tournament, and not when I’d been slow playing. I probably would have done the same, and I actually felt bad for her as I called. A part of me wanted to fold instead.
She turned over her cards. Ace-king, just like I figured. I reached for my hand. I guess my body language told her she was beat, because something came into those big green eyes.
Or maybe I should say that several things came into them. I could tell that she really did like me. That I could have her for the asking, and without needing to worry about her brainwashing me. We were past that. I also saw how sad she was going to be to lose the hand.
But she didn’t have to lose it. I could throw my cards away without turning them over, and that would keep her at the table. I could knock out the Pharaoh first, and then beat her heads up.
Even as I was thinking it, I knew it was all crazy, and a lie. She was taking one last shot at brainwashing me right now, and really giving it her all. Maybe somehow she’d gotten hold of another drop of my blood, or something else that boosted her signal.
But it might not matter what I knew, only what I felt. My hand was frozen in mid-air.
“If you aren’t going to show,” the Pharaoh murmured, “the lady has the right to claim the pot.”
I set the Thunderbird between Leticia and me. It helped. It still didn’t let me turn over my cards, but at least I was able to tear my eyes away from her face. Instinct made me look for A’marie among the railbirds like a drowning man looking for a life preserver.
She was there, looking all worried, and the sight of her shoved some more of the crazy out of my head. I gasped in a breath and turned over my hand.
“Sorry,” I said. “Even after everything you’ve tried to do to me, it was close.”
Leticia laughed. “Well, I suppose that’s something, anyway. I counted, and you have me covered, so…” She pushed her remaining chips to the center of the table, stood up, and offered the Pharaoh her hand. “Good game, you wise old thing. I’ll get you next time.”
“My dear. Always a delight.” He took the cheroot out of his mouth and lifted her fingers to what was left of his lips.
I stood up to shake with her, but she hugged me instead. “Kick his ass,” she whispered into my ear, and followed it up with a flick of tongue.
Then she went to join the spectators. I took one more stab at disliking her as much as she deserved, but it just wasn’t in me. If you’re a guy, you couldn’t have done it, either.
The expression on A’marie’s face changed. Now she was giving me that half annoyed, half-amused I-can’t-believe-what-a-pig-you-are look women give you when you’re drooling over someone they think is a skank. I tried to look innocent and sat back down.
The Pharaoh washed the cards, spreading them around on the felt, then picked them up and did a one-handed weave shuffle. He hadn’t shuffled that way before, or passed the time doing chip tricks, either, and I assumed it was intended to distract me.
“Believe it or not,” he murmured, “I felt early on that it would come down to you and me in the end. I wonder, are you interested in making a deal? Four fiefs for the winner, and two for the runner-up.”
“That doesn’t work for me,” I said, keeping my voice just as low.
“Are you certain? That way, Timon would remain a lord. In fact, he and I would both come out ahead, no matter what.”
“I’m a winner-take-all kind of guy.”
“You could consult with him. I’ll wait.”
“I don’t need to. While I’m sitting here, I am him. Isn’t that the way it works?” I hoped so. I didn’t really know how far I could push it.
“If you say so.” His little smile gave me the feeling that somehow, he knew everything I had planned. If so, it was creepy. But if he wasn’t going to interfere, I guessed it didn’t matter.
A couple minutes later, I flopped quads, two nines in my hand and two more on the board. The Pharaoh looked at me for a little while, then made a big bet.
It was a perfect situation. After busting Leticia, I had a stack that was almost as big as his. And if I went all in, he’d probably call. I could cripple him right here and now.
In fact, everything was so perfect that I flashed the Thunderbird to see if the Pharaoh was using magic to set me up. He didn’t appear to be. Then, hating it, I folded.
Because the situation wasn’t quite perfect. The timing was wrong. I couldn’t put him away just yet.
Not long after, the clock struck three. It was time for a break, and I stood up and stretched. “Are you going to stay close by?”
The mummy shrugged. “I certainly can. As I imagine you’ve realized, I don’t have any biological requirements to address.”
“Thanks.” I headed for Timon, who was waiting for me impatiently as usual, but without Gaspar playing seeing-eye dog. It was a relief to get out of the stinging haze of the Pharaoh’s smoke, but only until I stepped into my boss’s stink zone.
“I have some pointers for you,” he said.
“That’s great,” I answered. “But I may not need them.”
Timon frowned. “Don’t get cocky.”
“It’s not that. It’s just that I’m thinking of throwing the game.”
The frown changed to a scowl. “Joke when you’ve won.”
“I’m not joking. All your subjects want to get rid of you. And even though I’ve only had a couple little tastes of the way you torture them, I see their point.”
“Why do you care how I treat them?”
“Considering everything they’ve tried to do to me, that’s a good question. But I just do. Anyway, here’s the deal. When I win, you give me Tampa, just like you were going to give the underwater part of it to Murk. That’ll still leave you with the five other fiefs I’m going to win for you.”
“Otherwise, you’ll make sure you lose.”
“That’s it.”
He sneered. “You’re bluffing. You’re a born gamester. It would damage your sense of self to do less than your best.”
“You’re right. But it would also hurt it to leave you in charge. So this is the compromise. We renegotiate our deal, or screw you.”
“Are you so stupid that you don’t understand what you’re risking? That night with the skull. That can be every night from now on. It can be your whole reality.”
I remembered Rufino, felt cold inside, but made myself smile anyway. “But I’m betting it won’t. Not if the Pharaoh tells you to get off his lawn, which I think he will. Because when you and I were flying together, I noticed what the permanent part of your version of dreamland looked like. And it wasn’t the whole earth. It was just Tampa. That makes me think you can’t mess with people from a long way off.”
“Then I’ll have to mess with you right now.” He rattled off a string of words in that jaw-breaking magical language I’d heard him use before. Naturally, I couldn’t understand it, but I heard him say “Billy Fox” a couple times in the middle. When he was done, he looked at me and waited. For me to apologize or drop to my knees or something.
“Sorry,” I said. “But I guess you needed my real name to make that work. And way back when we were first making our deal, I had a feeling I shouldn’t give it to you.”
In case you’re wondering, the “Billy” part was right. And I was “Billy Fox” to a lot of people, including the guys I gambled with. But “Fox” was actually short for “Foxcroft.”
“Very clever,” Timon snarled. “But sometimes clever people are so busy being clever that they miss the obvious. Like the fact that I can see again. Not perfectly, but well enough to take on the Pharaoh if I need to.”
I stiffened my index and middle fingers and stabbed them into his eyes. Moe himself couldn’t have done it any better. Timon yelped, staggered backward, and clapped his hands to his face.
“How about now?” I asked. It was the only sound in the room. He and I had been talking too softly for most people to realize we were arguing, but everybody was staring now.
Timon lowered his shaking hands. His eyes were a raw, seeping mess again. It made me hopeful and sick to my stomach at the same time.
“Grab him!” he screamed.
Some of the Tuxedo Team started toward me. Whether or not they’d heard about the big plan, they were too scared of Timon to disobey a direct order.
“You better think this through,” I told him. “Remember, nobody else will play for you. That’s why you needed to partner up with me in the first place.”
“Well, if I’m about to lose my lordship, then I don’t have time to deal with you as you truly deserve. But I promise to make these last few moments truly painful.”
Hands grabbed me from behind.
I’d been afraid this would happen. Timon couldn’t just knuckle under to extortion. That would cost him the other lords’ respect, and be just as bad as losing his lands. And the eye poke had only made it worse.
But I hoped he might still agree if I left him some wiggle room. If he didn’t have to cave completely in front of everybody. “Hang on,” I said. “Don’t you want to hear my second offer?”
“No.” He lifted his grubby, still-trembling hands toward my eyes.
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” I said, talking fast. “I’ll beat the Pharaoh and win you all six fiefs. Then, when your eyes are okay, you and I will play a game. You’ll put up Tampa, and I’ll put up me. If you win, you can do any horrible thing you want to me. Or, for the rest of my life, I’ll be that loyal, obedient flunky you wanted me to be.”
His fingers with their black, ragged nails stopped a couple inches short of my eyes. I told myself I’d known all along that they would. Because the lords were addicted to gambling, and I’d just offered him a game.
“Are you talking about more poker?” he asked.
“I actually had some other ideas. You guys play all kinds of games, right? We can work out the details later.”
He smiled a nasty smile. “There’s one condition I insist on nailing down right now. However we play, we’ll do it in dream.”
I’d been expecting that, too. Because, while he and his buddies were hooked on gambling, they sure weren’t hooked on playing fair. “All right, but I’ve got a couple conditions, too.”
“You’re in no position to make any.”
“I’m doing it anyway. And you should check the time. Oops, sorry, I forgot you probably can’t see the hands on the clock. Anyway, the break’s almost over. In just a couple minutes, one of us needs to sit down at the table. It can be me, with everything it takes to win, or you and your handicap.”
“What do you want?” he gritted.
“First, swear right here and now in front of the other lords and everybody else that you’ll follow through on the deal like we’ve laid it out so far.”
“I swear it,” he said, “by sword, cup, rod, and stone.”
I hoped that meant something. As usual, I really had no idea.
“Second,” I said, “we need a referee. Somebody to help us work out rules that give me some kind of a chance, and then to enforce them. I’m thinking the Pharaoh. You guys all respect him, and since he can set up little ghost worlds of his own, I’m guessing that if you let him in, he can operate in yours.”
“Are you and he working together?” Timon asked. “Did you arrange this in advance?”
“I swear by the sacred Nile,” the Pharao
h said, “he didn’t.” Davis had pushed his wheelchair up close for a good view of the show. “I also swear that if you choose me to officiate, I’ll do so impartially.”
“Why would you bother?” Timon asked.
The mummy shrugged. “It should be an interesting contest, and how else would I obtain a view?”
Timon turned back to me. “I agree to your terms. Now beat him.”
The bodyguards took that as their signal to let me go. I did have a “biological requirement,” so I hurried to the john, slurped some water from a drinking fountain, and then rushed back to the table.
As I sat down, the Pharaoh said, “A week ago, you didn’t even know the Old People exist. Now, you’re trying to seize control of a fief. Nobody can say you lack ambition.”
I grinned. “Tell that to my teachers, the major who wanted me to put in for Ranger training, and my ex-fiancée.”
“Nonetheless.” He blew out a swirl of smoke. “Although it doesn’t really matter anyway, since I’m going to win the current contest.” He did a Hindu shuffle. Apparently, like the weave shuffle, it was just for fun or show, because then he moved on to the standard riffle-and-box technique you see in every casino.
For a while, we traded chips back and forth. Then I caught a run of good hands. I bet them, he folded, and before long, my stack was bigger than his.
He lit a fresh cheroot. “Perhaps I was overly optimistic.”
“It’s still anybody’s game,” I said, although really, I felt good about my chances.
“You were shrewd not to share your true name with anyone. Names have power in my—or should I say our?—style of magic no less than in Timon’s. Raise twenty thousand.” He pushed the chips out.
“Make it sixty thousand more.”
He mucked. “In fact, the creator god Re was all powerful precisely because no one else knew his name. None of the other gods could match him, any more than any of us lords has thus far proved able to contend with you.”
“Really.” I was paying attention, but not a lot. I liked his stories but figured they were meant to distract his opponents, and I wasn’t going to let this one distract me now. “I call.”
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