Without a King (Greatest Thief 1, mxm)

Chapter Twenty-two

It was raining; a miserable, cold rain that made us want to do nothing but huddle inside under a blanket. So huddle we did. Baisan and Castin were quietly talking in one corner, the girls in another. Orrun and Leker had dozed off. I was bored. I sat by the fire, cross-legged, just staring at it. 

It had been a few weeks since my escape from jail. My brand still hurt sometimes when I moved my shoulder oddly, but it had healed into a shiny scar. My wrist was still useless for climbing. My back had entirely healed, but Kassia said there were a couple scars that would probably take some time to fade. 

I poked at the fire absentmindedly and added another few pieces of wood. Our pile was getting low, and if it weren't for the rain, I would have volunteered to go try to find some more. It was always easy to find pieces of wood from broken furniture, or I could steal a chair, if Baisan ever let me out on the streets again.

"Finn, come here."

Baisan's voice shook me from my bored daze. I went over to join them. He and Castin had my old chest open in front of them. There were some copper siyas, and a single brass. I eyed it, wondering briefly how we managed to burn through Tannix's money so quickly. "What do you want?"

"If I give you ten siyas, would it be worth it to go to the tavern?" Baisan asked. There was just a slight sense of hopefulness in his voice that he was clearly trying to hide from me. He didn't like that I was the only one who could turn a profit at the tavern.

"You're letting me out?"

Baisan nodded. "You're healed enough for this, aren't you?"

"Suppose so. How much do you want?"

"As close to a hundred siyas as you can manage."

"A hundred?" I asked, louder than I intended. The girls glanced across the room at us. "Are you joking, Baisan? None of the poorer men will play with me once I've won around fifty siyas, and the bigger games refuse to let me in regardless of how much money I have. I've tried."

"So supplement your winnings a bit," Baisan said with a shrug. "You've done it before."

"And I almost got stabbed in the back."

"Take Castin."

"So he can get stabbed in the back? All right."

Castin swore under his breath. "Do you think I like being your bodyguard?"

"When my money buys us dinner? I think that makes guarding me worth it."

Baisan closed the chest and locked it. The sound snapped me out of my argument with Castin. "Right. I promise you fifty siyas. I'll see what I can do beyond that."

Baisan smiled as he handed me the brass siya. "Take my cloak for the rain. You were bored anyway."

"That's the only reason I'm agreeing to go. Come on, Castin."

The tavern was near the main gate. It was busy, probably in part because of the heavy rain. Castin and I slipped through a side door and pushed back our wet hoods. Like everything in the lower city, it was an old building, but large. It usually catered to the sailors and merchants who came to the city, and Natives rarely used it. There were smaller taverns and bars scattered around for our use.

Castin and I weren't there for the ale, though. We shouldered our way between the crowded tables. As promised, I grabbed a few things along the way from men too drunk to notice me, and Castin did the same. Near the back of the wide room, we found the tables we were looking for.

They looked just like any other tables, except that as well as tankards of ale, the men sitting at them held cards. Every table had a small pile of money in the middle of it, and some of the men had neat stacks of coins in front of them. The higher stakes games were the furthest back, and I forced myself to ignore them. As I'd told Baisan, they wouldn't let me in even if I could afford it. Instead, I walked up to the closest table. Castin hung back, leaning against one of the wooden pillars holding up the roof.