Brighter Than the Stars

Nicole - Gambling

I officially hated ships. And the ocean.

Not that I really hated the ocean. I just hated being on the ocean. The middle of the sea, with no land in sight, was terrifying when I didn't know how to swim. And it rocked. All the time, constantly, in a seemingly never-ending motion. I was never sick, but I felt nauseous and wanted it desperately to stop.

It was supposed to take a week to get to Atala, and after one day I'd decided I'd had enough. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep in the late afternoon, once everyone was upstairs. We still had six days to go, and I hadn't slept at all last night, because I'd been trying not to throw up. James loved it–he'd never been on a boat before (surprisingly) and seemed almost ready to jump out into the ocean at the first chance he got. Clara was the same way, and had even asked if we could go swimming once we got to Atala (at least she didn't want to just jump off), and James had quickly picked up on the idea. In the meantime, I considered my options for getting out of it.

I woke up with a blanket tucked over me, a plate (tin, not glass) that pinned down a note next to me. Leo, when he'd first been told, had been nothing short of horrified when he'd realised what food on the ship meant. Sure enough, the rice, biscuit, and salted meat he'd left me were probably not things he ever wanted to be near again. He'd pinned down a drawing, too–me, sitting in the window seat in my room at the palace, the window cracked and my hair blowing forward. I was smiling. The note at the bottom read: I tried. It's not my best work–at all–but I'm working on it. I was supposed to get you for dinner, but just let you sleep. Love you. Leo.

If there was anything off about it, I couldn't tell. Then again, I wasn't an artist, so I might not have realised, anyway. Or it was just Leo thinking that he couldn't or wouldn't be able to draw like he used to again, and picking out the flaws. I slipped it into my bag.

They were playing some sort of card game upstairs around the table, and I sat on the armrest of Leo's chair and watched. I rarely played cards–it just seemed like a good way to lose money to me, and, back in Aeloni, it had been. That had been part of my fathers', and many other mens', problem. They tried to forget through cards and drink and just ended up making it worse.

"Hey," Leo said. "I'm losing. Badly. Want to switch?"

I smiled. Leo always lost at cards, and never seemed to mind it. I knew he often failed purposely, just to let someone like James win. "Nope," I said. "You're on your own."

"That's mean." He absentmindedly took my hand and traced the scars on my palm. "I'm going to lose my fortune here. Spare some sympathy."

"I'm good. And you don't have a fortune to lose."

"You wound me." He turned to me in mock hurt before he whispered, "You're beautiful. And I love you."

I touched the scar over his eye. "I think you might want to get the other one checked out."

"Somebody's Miss Sunshine today." He tossed a card at random onto the table, and, a moment later, had to forfeit several of his chips. I leaned over his shoulder to see the cards better.

"You suck. Why didn't you play that one?" I tapped one and he shrugged.

"I told you I was terrible at this. I've never even played this one before."

"Lily taught me," James explained. He stared at his cards, concentrating. Annabelle, who was across from him, looked pleased, and I figured she must have been winning–and clearly enjoyed irritating James. "I've only played a few times."

"That's an excuse," Annabelle said. "I've only played twice, which is less than him, and I'm winning. He's just a sore loser."

"I am not!" James protested. "Anyway, you're cheating."

"You have no proof of that."

"Enough, you two," Leo said. I took his card hand from him and he didn't protest. It wasn't even bad–he could have been doing better than almost broke. When it cycled through Madeline and around again, I set one down on the table. A moment later, I pulled several chips back onto his side. "See? I told you we should switch."

"I changed my mind. You were so terrible I just couldn't allow you to continue."

"Fair enough." He leaned his head against my shoulder as he watched me sort through his cards. Annabelle was ahead by quite a bit, then Madeline, then James. Leo had apparently just been throwing cards in, and it had gotten him absolutely nowhere. I figured he would have been in debt, and they would have had to make up new rules for that, within the next few rounds.

"Remind me to never let you into one of those gambling halls," I said. I played my–or Leo's–card and collected a few more chips. "I think this may be the worst I've ever seen anyone do." Besides that, I just hated those gambling halls–rooms that stunk of liquor and loss, people with glazed over expressions that walked the halls half-dead. James and Lily preferred the tavern, but had gone to one of these gambling halls once, and I'd made the mistake of coming along. I'd ended up locking myself in the bathroom on the floor with a headache. It'd been a relief when we'd finally gotten to go.

"Wouldn't want to anyway," he said.

"We don't have many in Atala," Maddie added. "I think they are more of an Itarise thing–I've noticed many on the streets, and they seem to be frequently featured in your guidebooks." She shrugged. "Not really my scene, however. I did enjoy that festival you had–the one with the lights outside."

"We're all horrible gamblers in Itari," Annabelle said. "Just do nothing but it. Everyone's addicted and everyone loses their money all the time. It's a wonder anyone has any money to gamble. I'm kidding–but it is popular. Just look at James. The proper Itarise man." She snickered.

"Very funny," James said. He kept glaring at his cards. He seemed to be having terrible luck this round, but James's luck always seemed to run out quickly. Just like most people who frequented gambling halls. A few rounds later, I had tied him, and he glared at me across the table. "Really? I was counting on someone having a worse hand than me."

"Leo didn't," I said. "He just sucks. You, on the other hand...that's just rough."

"Thanks for the sympathy." He tossed down his last card with a sigh. "That's that, and thank goodness. I didn't totally fail." He gestured to his pile of chips.

"Yeah, well, you lost," Annabelle said. "Not sure if there's much of a difference."

"That's me in third," Madeline said, "and Nicole in second. It's getting late–I'm going to bed. We should be passing the Ravencrest Islands soon. Tomorrow, maybe. If you'd like, I think we have enough time to stop at them for an hour or so–they have excellent moonfruits."

"Count me in for that," Annabelle said. "I'm starving for something sweet."

She always was.

Word Count: 1,240