one really complained about having a few days to rest in one place, not after the traveling they’d done. The problem Siobhan faced lay in that no one wanted to stay in close quarters with Rune. No one trusted him, and it was hard to relax in the presence of someone you didn’t trust.
Siobhan wouldn’t swear that she could trust Rune either, but she did believe that he would hold up his end of the bargain as he honestly couldn’t afford to break the deal. She felt like saying, Look, he won’t bite. He’s a nice assassin, see? Alas, no one would likely listen.
She tried to ignore the uncomfortable atmosphere for the first day, giving people time to come to terms with him on their own, but by afternoon of the second day, the tension got to her. Giving up, she dug out the deck of cards and a brush pen from her pack.
People had more or less sorted themselves out in the narrow house. The bedrolls were rolled up during the day, as frankly there wasn’t enough floor space to leave them out, with the packs laid against the walls. Wolf and Tran seemed intent on polishing weapons, Conli eerily imitating them by polishing his medical tools. Markl had his notebook out, writing something down, but Sylvie looked beyond bored as she unbraided and re-braided her hair.
“Sylvie,” Siobhan invited while waving the deck in the air. “Up for a game?”
The other woman perked up. “Sounds good. What are we playing?”
“Thirteen Cards,” Siobhan responded. “Course, it’s hard to play with only two people…Rune, care to join in?”
No one was fooled by this casual invitation. But Rune seemed glad for something to do aside from ignore everyone’s not-stares. “Well, a game sounds fun, but I don’t know this one.”
“It’s not hard,” Siobhan assured him. She sat cross-legged near him, Sylvie joining her on the other side so that they formed a circle. “Are you familiar with card games?”
“Somewhat,” he responded carefully.
“Then here’s the rules. You have thirteen cards in your hands. Your goal is to get rid of them, and the first person with no cards left wins. You can lay down pairs, sequences, or multiples of cards, but whatever you lay down has to match what the first person lays down. Got that? Good. If you can’t lay something down, or don’t want to, say ‘go.’ We’ll play rounds, eliminating people, until only one person is left.”
He nodded understanding, watching as she quickly shuffled the deck of slim wooden cards before passing them out between the three. “What are we betti’n? This is a gambli’n game, it seems.”
“Of a sort,” Sylvie agreed. “But there’s a long established rule in the guild that we don’t bet money with each other. It leads to bad blood later. So instead, we have penalties.” She smirked as she held up the brush pen. “The winner gets to scribble whatever she wants to on the loser’s face.”
Rune seemed intrigued by this, and if that quirk of the mouth were any indication, amused. “And, ah, how permanent is that ink?”
“Very,” Siobhan assured him cheerfully.
“Warni’n taken.” Rune took the cards from her and started sorting through them.
The first few minutes, people were busy sorting through cards and figuring out how to best play them. Then Siobhan nodded to the assassin. “We always start left of the dealer. So, you go.”
“Pairs or sequences, right?”
“If you have three or four of a kind, you can lay that down too.”
“Got it.” He laid down a pair, starting the game.
Perhaps it was beginner’s luck, but whatever the case, Rune proved to be a tough opponent. Siobhan barely squeaked by in getting rid of her cards before he did. Sylvie wasn’t so lucky. With an outright smirk, Rune leaned forward with the brush and painted a sloppy star on her right cheek.
Making a face, she picked all the cards up and shuffled them. “I deal this time.”
“Can you deal me in?” Markl requested.
Siobhan waved him forward, secretly relieved that he chose to do so. They all shifted their positions enough that he had room to sit with them. “Are you familiar with Thirteen Cards?” she asked him as he settled between Sylvie and Rune.
“I listened to the instructions, I think I know how it works,” he assured her.
With the way the game was set up, no more than four could play. But as Sylvie dealt the cards, and Siobhan started them off by laying down a five-card sequence, she could feel Wolf