Free The Broken Lands by Kate Milford Page A

suspect that this much, at least, I’m going to enjoy.”

SIX
Jin
    S AVERIO
!”
    It was uncanny how well Ilana Ponzi could mimic her mother’s voice. Sam leaned around the punter sitting opposite him. Sure enough, there she was, waving as she made her way across Culver Plaza with a blue dinner pail swinging from her hand.
    â€œThat your girlfriend, kid?”
    Sam grinned at the punter, who had already lost three dollars and looked to be good for at least another two. In fact, this mark might as well have been wearing his entire card-playing philosophy pinned to his vest. It was a huge relief, after the debacle with the card sharp from the day before, to discover he hadn’t suddenly lost his ability to read another player’s logic. “Nah,” he said airily. “I get my meals delivered. The girls line up for the privilege. But I suspect we’ve got time for another coup or two before she gets here, if you’d like to try and win back a few bits.”
    No surprise, the guy lost; in fact, he lost another three dollars in the short time it took Ilana to reach them. But if he’d been in any mood to complain, it only lasted a minute.
    â€œOh, I didn’t think to ask if I should bring anything for your friend,” Ilana said cheerfully. “How could I be so thoughtless?” She popped open the lid of the pail and beamed at the punter as she handed him a paper-wrapped sandwich. “Here you go!”
    It was impossible, even for a punter who’d just lost a decent amount of cash, to be angry when Ilana Ponzi was doing her adorable routine. The mark accepted the sandwich with a rueful shake of his head and left his money behind.
    â€œThanks, pard,” Sam said as Ilana dropped onto the crate the mark had been using for a seat.
    â€œSee how good my timing’s getting?” she demanded. “Admit it. I’d make a
perfect
partner. I’m simply too charming to get mad at.”
    â€œYou’re a natural.”
    â€œWait.” Ilana slapped his fingers as he reached for the cards. “Here.” She handed him the pail and swept up the deck. “Watch. I’ve been practicing.” Sam leaned back, balancing on one edge of his own crate, and tried not to smile while Ilana demonstrated her card-shuffling prowess. “I’ve pretty much got this one down. What’s that other one you showed me . . . Wait, Sam, keep looking . . .”
    Several yards beyond Ilana’s dark head, a slim figure was walking awkwardly across Culver Plaza. The face was hidden by a wide-brimmed black slouch hat, and although the person was dressed in brown trousers and a jacket and had both hands shoved into the pockets, Sam was immediately certain it was a girl. And it was pretty obvious he wasn’t the only one who could tell. There was a pair of older boys, maybe eighteen or nineteen, trailing along behind her, muttering to themselves and nodding in her direction. Bad news.
    â€œYou’re not looking,” Ilana protested, turning to see what had stolen Sam’s attention.
    Then something made the figure in the hat turn to face the boys at her heels. They burst into laughter. One of them must’ve said something fairly awful.
    â€œHorrible boys,” Ilana said indignantly. “Why are all boys horrible?”
    Sam put up his hands and opened his mouth to protest, but then as the girl turned her back on the hecklers and started stalking off, her plodding gait even more ungainly the faster she walked, one of the boys reached out and flipped the hat off her head. A long, black braid tumbled out as the hat went flying. It was the Chinese girl from the Broken Land Hotel.
    â€œSam,” Ilana yelped, hopping up and down and pointing at the horrible boys, and scattering cards all over the ground in the process.
    â€œWait here.” He shoved the lunch pail back into Ilana’s hands. “Don’t let anybody run off with my