Phaze Doubt

“ ‘Cause it be my shame,” she said. “An thou beat me at cards, thou canst make me tell thee for consequence.”

That seemed fair enough. He picked out the 10 of hearts and laid it down. “When thou dost think o’ the rule, make thy guess,” he said. “It must be apparent within four cards, ‘less thou preferest other. An thou guess wrong, my point. An thou not guess it in eight cards, my point.”

“Aye. Lay thy four.”

He put down the 4 of clubs, the jack of diamonds, and the 5 of spades.

“That be not enough to define the rule,” she said. “An I guess a rule that fits, but it be not thine, what then?”

“I tell thee nay, but no penalty. Otherwise it became cumbersome for two. An several play, bad guesses help others to win, so players be cautious. But with two, there be no urgency to guess, so it can be the whole deck before a guess.” He was getting this from Nepe. “So I put limits, but thou canst protest them.”

“Nay, no protest. Thy rule be change color and diminish by six, in circular fashion. Mayhap also repeat not suit till all be used, but that were not certain.”

She had nailed it with alarming accuracy. Flach handed the deck to her.

“My deal be same’s thine,” she said, not taking up the four cards. “But my rule other.”

Flach studied the cards with new interest. “Two-digit number alternating with one-digit number,” he said.

“Nay. No penalty.”

“Lay more cards.”

She put down the 9 of spades, the 3 of spades, the 6 of clubs, and the 8 of clubs.

Flach stared at the cards. The colors no longer alternated, and the numbers no longer descended. There was no consistent pattern of odd and even. He had to admit he was stumped.

“Third card be odd,” she said.

“But the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cards are odd!” he protested.

“Not odd in total, odd in being different from the first three,” she explained. “See: each has two symbols in top row, till the third, with one. Then two, two, and one.”

He looked, and it was so. She had looked at the cards in a different way, and been more original than he. “Thy point,” he conceded.

They played again. She dealt the 8 of hearts, 11 of spades, 5 of clubs, and 4 of clubs. When he was baffled, she dealt out the 9 of diamonds, the ace of diamonds, 7 of diamonds, and 6 of diamonds.

He was unable to get it. “Alphabetic,” she explained.

“But the ace should be first!”

“That be the one, as in one, two, three et cetera.”

He admitted defeat.

So it went. Icy was immensely more talented than he, in this game. By the time they were ready to camp for the night, he was hopelessly behind on points. Any penalties she had in mind for him were hers to dictate.

“How earnest thou so apt in cards?” he asked ruefully.

“My sire be chess champ o’ demons, and but for thy grandpa, o’ all Phaze,” she said. “From him do I inherit a memory and grasp o’ numbers and positions. None beat me at such.”

“Mayhap that be thy curse!” he exclaimed. “Demons like not to be beaten by demoness.”

She shook her head. “Thinkst I know that not? Were thou a prospective match, thou wouldst ne’er discover so helpless a female, in anything relating to male’s domain.”

It seemed she did know what she was doing. She didn’t need to worry about beating him, as he was in no way a prospect for her. It was foolish, he knew, but he almost regretted that.

They ate supper while riding. Flach conjured cold sandwiches and cold milk for himself, not wishing to upset her by having hot food, and she ate ice cream from her own store. After a while his milk froze, so they traded, and she chewed on it while he had some of her ice cream. If a person was what she ate, he could see why she was sweet.

The demon guards were hunting on the move. They skied down ice rabbits and killed them with ice spears. They fired ice arrows up at ice geese and brought them down. This frozen realm was full of life, when a person knew what to look for. Perhaps the magic that protected him from the cold, and shielded Icy from his heat, also facilitated his perception of the nature of this region. It was far more interesting than he had supposed. Now he saw that there were ice plants, too, ranging from cut-glass blades of grass to snow trees.

“I fear I be losing my touch,” Icy remarked. “Thine eyes be straying across the landscape.” She inhaled. “Dost spy elevations more symmetrical than mine?”

“Thou wouldst not tease me so, an thou knew not mine age,” he accused her.

“Aye,” she agreed, satisfied.

The dogs drew up at a bit of an outcropping of ice, perhaps a glacier that had gotten lost. To the west dark clouds were surging, blotting out the chilly sunset. “There will be nice weather tonight,” Icy observed. “But methinks thou willst prefer to be under co’er.”

“Aye. Snow and ice be not as appealing to me as to thee.”

She smiled obscurely. “Mayhap we shall see.”