Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,93
“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 Pharaoh 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