Phaze Doubt

Flach relaxed. If they were so sure of their footing and ley’s safety, he might as well be sure too. They surely knew every inch of these mountain slopes, and could handle them precisely. They had had their fun with him, but he would keep his nerve better from now on.

Soon they were beyond the mountains and heading north across a relatively flat plain. The dogs ran indefatigably, and the skiing demons kept the pace. It quickly got dull.

“Dost know any good games?” Icy asked with a toss of her ice tresses. “We have long to ride.”

“Well, there be tag—“

“And which o’ us gets off and runs to do that?” she inquired archly.

“It were a stupid notion,” he admitted. “I could conjure cards—“

“I have played e’ery game there be for cards!” she said crossly. “A chief’s daughter has much time on her hands.”

There’s one she hasn’t played, I’ll bet, Nepe thought. I don’t know what it’s called, but I remember how it goes.

Flach conjured a deck of playing cards. “Mayhap I have one thou hast not.”

“Willst bet on’t?”

“Bet what?”

“Consequences.”

Flach wasn’t sure he trusted this. “What consequences?”

She shrugged. “I’ll decide, after I win.”

“Suppose I win?”

“Then the consequence be thine to decide, for me.”

“I have a mission to accomplish. I can’t be diverted to—“

“Innocent tasks,” she said. “Like saying ‘I be a warm ogre bottom!’ or mayhap standing on the sledge and sunning the guards.”

“Sunning?”

“Mayhap thy kind calls it mooning.”

This was beginning to sound like the kind of challenge a person of his generation couldn’t turn down. “An thou dost lose the bet, I define a consequence for thee?” he said, making quite sure.

“Aye. So long as it be harmless and delay our travel not.”

This creature is dangerous! Nepe warned admiringly. But you better accept her challenge, or she’ll come up with worse.

“Agreed,” Flach said. “The bet be whether I have a card game thou hast ne’er played before.”

“Aye. Name it.”

“I can’t name it. But—“

“Then thou dost lose!” she exclaimed.

“Nay, that be not the bet!” he protested. “I need not name it, only describe it. An it be a good game thou has played not before, I win.”

She reconsidered. “Aye, that be fair. Describe it.”

Drawing on Nepe’s information, he described it: “Several can play, or only two. The dealer lays down cards according to a secret rule, and first to guess that rule becomes dealer.”

She considered. “I ne’er heard o’ it,” she confessed. “But be it a real game? Who wins it, who loses? How be points scored?

“The dealer wins, long’s he holds his place. It be like king o’ the hill: the one atop wins till he loses. But we could play for points an thou wishest: each wrong guess be the dealer’s point.”

“But the dealer gets all the points!” she protested.

“Aye. but the players can become dealer by guessing right, and get points. When the game end, belike one be ahead.”

“Aye,” she said, considering it. “I like this game. Thou dost win the bet. What wouldst thou make my consequence?”

Flach was tempted to make her sun the guards, but lacked the nerve. “Let’s play the game, and this be my first point.”

She looked at him. “Thou dost be generous, Flach. I would have gi’en thee worse.”

“I lost my nerve,” he admitted.

She laughed. “I like thee, warm one! I will not make thee do aught onerous.”

“An thou dost win.”

“Ne’er fear, I will win,” she said confidently. “I be not Adept, but I be sharp at card games.”

Flach marveled at her certainty. Though his own experience with the Proton Game was slight, Nepe had played it often, and her expertise was his to draw on now that they were merged. Also, he had played games with his adopted sibling wolves, among which guessing games were prominent because they could be indulged while running together through brush in quest of game (the other kind). In short, despite his youth, he regarded himself as a good competitor, quick with his wits. Could this sheltered snow girl be the same?

He shuffled the cards. They were plastic, able to withstand both his heat and her cold. “Wouldst be dealer first?”

“Nay,” she said. “How couldst thou have the first point, and thou not be dealer? Lay me out.”

He glanced at her, unsure of her terminology. She had undone her ice coat, evidently feeling too warm, and had her feather-ice sweater open to view. It was a remarkably shapely sweater, rather like a contour map with two perfectly rounded mountains.

“Some cards,” she clarified, laughing so that the mountains shook. Well she knew the nature of his confusion and his distraction.

When I grow up, I’m going to practice to make my sweater move like that! Nepe thought enviously.

That helped clarify things for Flach. He had found that sweater oddly intriguing, but hadn’t quite realized why. No doubt when he became the age he had made himself appear to be, he would have no trouble realizing why. Apparently there was a greater correspondence between the interests of demons and men than he had appreciated.

“Then thou must shuffle,” he said. “That be standard, to assure I cheat not.”