Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,20

I was right.

The temple vanished, and the candlelit ballroom appeared. It seemed bright compared to where I’d just been. I was thrilled to be back until I felt the fingers twisted in my hair.

They belonged to Wotan, and they were holding my head up to stretch out my neck. He had his other arm cocked back to punch me.

Sitting down and already grabbed is a piss-poor posture for self-defense. Still, I managed to throw up my arm to block. The punch slammed into it and jammed it into my Adam’s apple. Which hurt, but at least didn’t crush my windpipe or break my spine.

Wotan snarled and pulled back his fist for another try.

“No!” I croaked. “No!” It was all I knew to say. After all the scary, mysterious shit that had happened in the temple, I’d lost track of what was going on this world, and what reason he had to attack me.

My whining worked about as well as you’d expect. But the Pharaoh said, “Hold on.” And that did make Wotan hesitate.

“He’s awake,” Leticia said.

“He was in a trance,” the huge man said. And he still seemed huge, even after I’d just fought actual giants. “Doing something.”

That jogged my memory. I realized I must have been sitting there without talking or moving—for all I knew, maybe drooling—and Wotan had picked up on the fact that I was cheating.

But I had a hunch I’d only been out for a couple seconds. I’d already learned that time could move at different speeds for different people, and Wotan was way too impatient to wait for minutes on end while I sat like a mannequin.

“Are you crazy?” I said. “I was just thinking.”

“Bullshit,” Wotan said.

“It’s not,” I said. “And how would you know, anyway? Can you tell when people are doing, uh, mind magic?”

For all I knew, he could, and if so, I was screwed. But my impression was that he was all about the physical.

He hesitated for maybe half a second. Then he said, “I know what I know.”

“Maybe you should ask the others,” I said. “The people who really could tell.”

Which shows how desperate I really was. Because it was one of those same others—given the Egyptian theme, I figured the Pharaoh—who’d stuck my wandering soul in Fantasyland. But for some reason, he hadn’t said anything about it yet, and maybe he still wouldn’t.

“I didn’t notice anything,” said Queen, munching a dragonfly.

“I didn’t, either,” said Leticia.

Gimble and then the mummy said the same.

“I don’t care what you say!” Wotan said.

“But you know the rules,” the Pharaoh said. “If you resort to bloodshed when the target’s impropriety isn’t manifest to everyone… ” He shrugged.

“Damn you all!” Wotan snarled. “I know what you’re doing!” He shuddered. “But it won’t work.” He gave my hair a yank that felt like it could give me whiplash, then let go. “This little turd isn’t worth it.” He stalked back to his seat.

I took deep breaths and told my heart to slow down. When Wotan reached for the pot, I said, “Hold it. The little turd hasn’t folded. And isn’t going to. I call.”

He goggled at me. Apparently he’d believed that, whatever magical dirty trick I was trying, he’d interrupted me before I could make it work.

“In that case,” said Leticia, with a hint of laughter in her voice, “let’s see what you have.”

I turned up my cards. Wotan picked his up and threw them on the felt. The seven landed facedown. Gimble waited a moment, then flipped it over himself.

Then Queen dealt the common cards. Neither Wotan nor I paired up. My ace was good.

Wotan got up and stalked out. We heard him smashing things in the lobby.

The Pharaoh puffed on his cheroot. “If everyone’s agreeable, I’ll count out Billy’s winnings from Wotan’s stack. I can also post his blinds until he returns.”

But Wotan never came back, not that night. The session ended just a few hands later.

Leticia started to shuffle, then set down the cards again. “Sunrise,” she said, and to my surprise, I felt it, too, as a spot of warmth to the east. It was like her awareness was contagious.

Not that I cared a whole lot about it. What mattered was that, not only had I survived my first night of this craziness, after doubling up through Wotan, I was the chip leader. Which is what you always want to be. But I also knew it hung a target on me.

CHAPTER FOUR

After the game broke up, we players just left our chips on