Free Book 1 - The Black Company by Glen Cook Page B

five."
    "Temper, temper," Elmo admonished. "You're the guy who's always
telling One-Eye to simmer down, remember?"
    "He bluffed me with a damned five?"
    Pickles wore that little smile as he stacked his winnings. He
was pleased with himself. He had pulled a good bluff. I would have
bet he was holding an ace myself.
    One-Eye shoved the cards to Goblin. "Deal."
    "Oh, come on. He was holding a five, and I got to deal too?"
    "It's your turn. Shut up and shuffle."
    I asked Pickles, "Where'd you hear that reincarnation
stuff?"
    "Flick." Flick was the old man Raven had saved. Pickles had
overcome the old man's defenses. They were getting thick.
    The girl went by the name Darling. She had taken a big shine to
Raven. She followed him around, and drove the rest of us crazy
sometimes. I was glad Raven had gone to town. We would not see much
of Darling till he got back.
    Goblin dealt. I checked my cards. The proverbial hand so bad it
could not make a foot. Damned near one of Elmo's fabled Pismo
straights, or no two cards of the same suit.
    Goblin looked his over. His eyes got big. He slapped them down
face upward. "Tonk! Goddammed tonk. Fifty!" He had dealt himself
five royal cards, an automatic win demanding a double payoff.
    "The only way he can win is deal them to himself," One-Eye
grumped.
    Goblin chortled, "You ain't winning even when you deal, Maggot
Lips."
    Elmo started shuffling.
    The next hand went the distance. Pickles fed us snippets of the
reincarnation story between plays.
    Darling wandered by, her round, freckled face blank, her eyes
empty. I tried imagining her in the White Rose role. I could not.
She did not fit.
    Pickles dealt. Elmo tried to go down with eighteen. One-Eye
burned him. He held seventeen after his draw. I raked the cards in,
started shuffling.
    "Come on, Croaker," One-Eye taunted. "Let's don't fool around.
I'm on a streak. One in a row. Deal me them aces and deuces."
Fifteen and under is an automatic win, same as forty-nine and
fifty.
    "Oh. Sorry. I caught myself taking this Rebel superstition
seriously."
    Pickles observed, "It's a persuasive sort of nonsense. It hangs
together in a certain elegant illusion of hope." I frowned his way.
His smile was almost shy. "It's hard to lose when you know fate is
on your side. The Rebel knows. Anyway, that's what Raven says." Our
grand old man was getting close to Raven.
    "Then we'll have to change their thinking."
    "Can't. Whip them a hundred times and they'll keep on coming.
And because of that they'll fulfill their own prophecy."
    Elmo grunted, "Then we have to do more than whip them. We have
to humiliate them." We meant everybody on the Lady's side.
    I flipped an eight into another of the countless discard piles
which have become the milemarks of my life. "This is getting old."
I was restless. I felt an undirected urge to be doing something.
Anything.
    Elmo shrugged. "Playing passes the time."
    "This is the life, all right," Goblin said. "Sit around and
wait. How much of that have we done over the years?"
    "I haven't kept track," I grumbled. "More of that than anything
else."
    "Hark!" Elmo said. "I hear a little voice. It says my flock are
bored. Pickles. Break out the archery butts
and . . . " His suggestion died under an
avalanche of groans.
    Rigorous physical training is Elmo's prescription for ennui. A
dash through his diabolical obstacle course kills or cures.
    Pickles extended his protest beyond the obligatory groan. "I'm
gonna have wagons to unload, Elmo. Those guys should be back any
time. You want these clowns to exercise, give them to me."
    Elmo and I exchanged glances. Goblin and One-Eye looked alert.
Not back yet? They should have been in before noon. I figured they
were sleeping it off. Turnip patrol always came back wasted.
    "I figured they were in," Elmo said.
    Goblin flipped his hand at the discard pile. His cards danced
for a moment, suspended by his trickery. He wanted us to know he
was letting us off. "I better check this out."
    One-Eye's cards