Free Water Sleeps by Glen Cook

learn fast when you play with One-Eye. Scoot over, Sin. Let me
     play while I pick this guy’s brain.” I pulled up a stool, studying Swan every
     second. The man knew how to get into a character. This was not the Willow Swan
     that Murgen wrote about or the Swan that Sahra saw when she visited the Palace.
    I picked up my five cards from the next deal. “This ain’t a hand, it’s a foot.
    How come you’re so relaxed, Swan?”
    “No stress. You can’t have a worse hand than mine. I don’t got no two cards of
     the same suit.”
    “No stress?”
    “As of today I got nothing to do but lean back and take it easy. Just play tonk
     till my honey comes and takes me home.”
    “You’re not afraid? Reports I’ve had said you’re shakier than Smoke used to be.”
    His features hardened. That was not a comparison he liked. “The worst has
     happened, hasn’t it? I’m in the hands of my enemies. But I’m still healthy.”
    “There’s no guarantee you’ll stay that way. Unless you cooperate. Darn! I’m
     going to have to rob a poor box if this keeps on.” Play had not gotten all the
     way back to me before the hand ended. I did not win.
    “I’ll sing like a trained crow,” Swan said. “Like a chorus. But I can’t do you
     much good. I was never as close to the center as you may think.”
    “Possibly.” I watched his hands closely as he dealt. It seemed like a moment
     when a skilled manipulator’s ego might compel him to show himself how good he
     was at pulling fast moves. If he had any moves, he would not get them by me. I
     learned the game from One-Eye, too. “Prove it. Tell me how Soulcatcher kept you
     two alive long enough to get off the plain.”
    “That’s an easy one.” He completed a straight deal. “We ran away faster than the
     ghosts chasing us could run. We were riding those black horses the Company
     brought down from the north.”
    I had ridden those enchanted beasts a few times myself. That could be the
     answer. They could outdistance any normal horse and could run almost forever
     without tiring. “Maybe. Maybe. She didn’t have any special talisman?”
    “Not that she mentioned to me.”
    I looked down at another terrible hand. Grilling Swan could get expensive. I am
     not one of the better tonk players in the gang. “What happened to the horses?”
    “Far as I know, they’re all dead. Time or magic or wounds got them. And the
     queen bitch wasn’t happy about that, either. She don’t like walking and she
     ain’t fond of flying.”
    “Flying?” Startled, I discarded a card I should have kept. That allowed one of
     the Guptas to go down and take me for another couple of coppers.
    Swan said, “I think I’m going to like playing with you. Yeah. Flying. She’s got
     a couple of them carpets that was made by the Howler. And she just ain’t real
     good with them. I can tell you that from personal experience. Your deal. Ain’t
     nothing like falling off of one of them suckers while it’s hauling ass, even if
     you’re only five feet high.”
    One-Eye materialized. He looked about as bright and alert as he ever did these
     days. “Room for one more?” His breath smelled of alcohol.
    Swan grumbled, “I know that voice. No. I figured you out twenty-five years ago.
    I thought we got your ass at Khadighat. Or maybe it was Bhoroda or Nalanda.”
    “I’m quick on my feet.”
    Slink said, “You’re in only if you show some money up front and you agree not to
     deal.”
    “And you keep your hands on top of the table all the time,” I added.
    “You smite me to the heart, Little Girl. People might get the idea you don’t
     trust me not to cheat.”
    “Good. That’ll save them a lot of time and pain.”
    “Little girl?” Swan asked. There was a whole different look in his eye suddenly.
    “One-Eye’s got diarrhea of the mouth. Sit down, old man. Swan was just telling
     us about Soulcatcher’s magic carpets and how she doesn’t like flying. And I’m
     wondering if